GUERRILLA DEMOCRACY NEWS: Sussex Police Naughty Santa List

Inspector Lee Lyons

Sussex Police inspector sacked over calls to prostitutes

A senior police officer who contacted prostitutes while on duty has been sacked following a misconduct hearing.

Inspector Lee Lyons, of Sussex Police, arranged a location and fee for one woman, “Natalie’s”, services for after his shift ended.

He also used his personal phone at work to make 23 calls to 11 prostitutes in an hour on 23 July.

Mr Lyons, accepted all 21 allegations against him, the disciplinary hearing was told.

He did not attend the seven-minute hearing in front of Chief Constable Giles York at Sussex Police HQ in Lewes.

Mr Lyons, 40, who was based in Hastings, was a critical incident inspector at the time of making the calls and text messages on his police BlackBerry.

Accepted allegations

Mr York said the scale and harm of Mr Lyons’ behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and that he had breached the boundaries between professional and personal life, even after management intervention.

No mitigating factors were offered on his behalf by Insp Matt Webb, chairman of Sussex Police Federation.

Among the allegations against Mr Lyons were that, on 11 September 2014, he posted details on Facebook about the shooting of a seven-year-old girl by her father.

Mary Shipstone was gunned down by Yasser Alromisse in Northiam earlier that day as she returned from school. His body was found in a car parked on a driveway next to Mary’s home.

Mr Lyons was alleged to have discussed the suspension of a number of officers at Hastings in March 2014 with a BBC producer, and to have discussed a “baddie vs baddie stabbing” in September 2014.

He was also said to have maintained a relationship with a local reporter since May 2012 and with whom he shared information about a number of cases.

After the hearing, Deputy Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney said: “Lyons was passing on information that was operationally sensitive and may well have affected victims or their families or may have had a negative impact on community tension.”

The Crown Prosecution Service has decided no criminal charges are to be brought against Mr Lyons, who was suspended from duty on 2 October 2014.

Sourced from BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-35095533

Sgt Phillip Patterson

Ex-Sussex Police officer jailed again for sex offences

A former police sergeant has been jailed for a second time after admitting sexual activity with a boy and possessing indecent images.

Phillip Patterson, 34, was sentenced to six years in prison and will be a registered sex offender for life.

Sussex Police say Patterson’s latest offending came to light during a routine visit in 2018 as part of his terms.

Judge David Rennie at Hove Crown Court said Patterson was “dangerous”.

Patterson, of Alexandra Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, already served a prison sentence for possessing more than 50,000 indecent images of children.

He resigned from his position with the police force on the day of his arrest in 2010.

‘Online grooming’

Det Con Vicky Jones said: “During a routine visit in 2018 to Patterson as part of their role to monitor registered sex offenders in the community, colleagues found on his mobile phone references to indecent material about children.

“The phone also contained evidence of his online grooming and sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy, a relationship which the boy confirmed when we traced him.”

He had already been given an eight-week suspended sentence in October 2016 for a previous breach of his sex offender notification requirements, and in September 2018 was given a 17-week custodial sentence for the further breach of the registration requirement which came to light in the police visit earlier that year.

In sentencing Patterson, Judge David Rennie said: “Some people reach for the idiotic justification that ‘they’re only pictures’.

“In all of these pictures, a child is having their innocence destroyed. Secondly, the 13-year-old, you groomed him and led him into your dark world of paedophilic abuse. I have no hesitation in concluding that you are dangerous.”

Sourced from BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-50855600