16 Wednesday February 23 2022 | the times
A senior official at the Police Federa-
tion was accused of gossiping and
joking about the killer police officer
Wayne Couzens in messages discussing
his fabricated defence.
Sergeant Simon Kempton, who was
seconded from Dorset police to the fed-
eration’s national board, is facing gross
misconduct proceedings. His force
alleges that he instigated an
“unacceptable and inappropriate”
online chat when he told other senior
federation officers that Couzens was
claiming that he handed Sarah Everard
to a prostitution network.
Couzens’ false claims had been out-
lined during a court hearing, but they
could not be reported at the time as
criminal proceedings were pending.
Couzens was handed a whole life sen-
tence in October for the abduction,
rape and murder of Everard.
Kempton’s misconduct hearing was
told that he wrote to other senior feder-
Wayne Couzens is
serving life in
prison for kidnap,
rape and murderSenior police officer
‘gossiped and joked’
about Couzens case
ation officers on a Signal messaging
group: “Wait til you hear what his
defence was.”
A number of “sarcastic, disparaging
and cynical” comments followed and
jokes about Couzens and laughing
emojis were used, it was alleged.
The Independent Office for Police
Conduct carried out an investigation
after screenshots of the messages were
passed on. Kempton claimed it was
important that other members of the
group be brought up to date with the
information in case the Police Federa-
tion needed to respond to it.
Mark Ley-Morgan, acting for Dorset
police, said the content and tone were
of gossip and risked “highly confiden-
tial” information getting into the public
domain.
Alex Duncan, national secretary of
the federation, said Kempton had done
“absolutely” the right thing in sharing
the information. He said Couzens was a
federation member who had admitted
kidnap. It was important the federation
knew what it was dealing with so it did
not inadvertently fund his defence.
Duncan said: “It was the biggest story
ongoing at the time, it involved one of
our members... We needed to be across
it and across it quickly, we needed to be
clear how we were going to deal with it
if there was a request for [legal] funding,
and what our stance was going to be”.
The hearing continues.Fiona Hamilton
Crime and Security Editor
A
n RAF sniffer
dog has been
awarded the
animal
equivalent of
the Victoria Cross for
protecting British troops
and civilians in
Afghanistan (Peter
Chappell writes).
Hertz, a ten-year-oldGerman shorthaired
pointer, was selected to
receive the Dickin medal
after becoming the first
dog in British military
history to be trained to
detect electronic
communications
equipment such as
mobile phones and GPS
devices. Hertz will beformally given the medal
by the director general of
the PDSA veterinary
charity, at a ceremony at
the Royal Air Force Club
in Mayfair, central
London, becoming the
74th recipient and joining
other dogs, pigeons,
horses and a cat.
Warrant Officer
Jonathan Tanner, Hertz’s
trainer and handler in
Afghanistan, described
him as a “one-off ”.
Tanner and Hertz were
assigned to find mobile
devices being used to
“pass messages that
might pose a threat to
those inside camp”. He
spent two months
training Hertz to sniff out
the devices. “It was a
capability that in the
British military had never
been tried before.”
The technique was
“very successful” with
Hertz finding more than
100 items. The dog, now
retired from military
service, worked in Camp
Bastion and locations
throughout Helmand and
Kabul over 13 months and
saved many lives.
Hertz was born in
Croatia and joined the
RAF as a year-old puppy.
Tanner said he was “by
far the best” dog he had
worked with.VC for dog
who sniffed
out mobile
phones in
Afghanistan
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLEJonathan Tanner said that
Hertz was by far the best
dog he had worked withNews