A North Yorkshire Police officer has been cleared of gross misconduct after allegations that he harassed his former partner.
PC Jonathan Axcell was cleared of gross misconduct but a report following the hearing said the panel was “concerned about the lack of understanding for [the former partner’s] boundaries” by the officer.
PC Axcell was cleared after it was alleged he “persistently messaged, phoned, and left voice notes” for his former partner who “wanted to move on with her life” after the relationship ended.
The panel said the allegations could not been proven on the balance of probabilities, according to a report following the hearing.
Assistant chief constable Sarah Jackson, Cai Mallett and Paul Harvey chaired the panel.
They found the former partner’s phone was “never fully investigated, and this, together with a lack of cogent evidence necessary to meet the civil (or criminal) test for harassment, resulted in insurmountable gaps in the evidence”.
The report said the panel “found no breaches of the standards of professional behaviour” as specified under policing regulation and “therefore found that there is no misconduct in this case”.
However, the report said, “the panel did note that on occasion there were numerous messages to [the former partner] without any response from her.
“[The former partner] also outlined her desire for him to stop messaging her friends, and that she wanted to move on with her life.”
The report said the behaviour “fell short of the level required to prove the allegation of harassment in this misconduct hearing”, but the panel was “concerned about the lack of understanding for [the former partner’s] boundaries”.
“This behaviour, whilst not meeting the threshold for misconduct, is nevertheless conduct that may undermine public confidence and is not conducive to the conduct of an officer as outlined in the Code of Ethics or the Police Standards of Professional Behaviour,” the report said.
It said the panel determined “this was a case where reflective practice was necessary”.
The panel directed the case to be dealt with under the Reflective Practice Review Process (RPRP), with “specific attention to relationship management, respecting boundaries and understanding the higher standards expected of police officers”.
RPRP is used to give police officers a chance to learn from and reflect on what could have been done better.
The allegations were said to have happened between August 2023 and December 2023.
PC Axcell’s former partner blocked him on “various messaging platforms” but it was alleged he “created an alternative profile on TikTok” which he used to continue messaging her, the report said.
Messages included PC Axcell “repeatedly asking” his former partner to meet him, it was alleged in the report.
It was also alleged that the officer’s behaviour caused his partner to be “in fear of [PC Axcell], and/or anxious, and/or alarmed, and/or distressed”.
The panel, however, found that although the former partner “did describe how she felt pestered by the officer”, “no evidence was presented that she was in fear or scared”.
It heard the former partner reportedly found PC Axcell “creepy” and alleged "he had behaved like this to other women she worked with/was friends with”, according to the report.
But the panel found there was “no independent evidence of this described behaviour” against PC Axcell.
PC Axcell told the panel his “continued contact” with his former partner “was because he wanted to be nice and check in with her”, even though he “knew she was upset with him”, according to the report.
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