A police officer failed to report her boyfriend’s law-breaking until they broke up. Former PC Katie White, who served with South Wales Police, has been barred from police work after a panel found she “put her own interests first”.
White, who resigned in August, chose not to attend Thursday’s misconduct hearing in Bridgend. The panel heard she was in a relationship with a man from December 2022 until September 2023. Within days of the breakup she made a series of calls to Dyfed-Powys Police about her ex.
The first call came on September 4 when she claimed her ex had been driving without insurance since January that year and had been driving under the influence of cannabis while his children were in the vehicle. She told the call handler: “I want to report my ex-partner for driving with no insurance and he smokes weed while driving.” White also said he had a history of domestic violence though not against her.
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The next day White called the force again and reported she had seen what looked like a black handgun in her ex’s vehicle in August. She also said he had schizophrenia and had disclosed thoughts of killing someone. White claimed she had forgotten to mention the gun in the previous call.
Four days later White made a third call in which she repeated that her ex had a gun in his car and expressed concern that he had not been arrested. “I know he’s got a gun in the boot,” she told the call handler.
A police officer contacted White about the calls she had made. White claimed she had told her ex several times that he could not buy a gun because he did not have a firearm licence and she did not want one near her home. She again claimed she had seen a handgun in the car boot in August 2023. And she alleged her ex had “dreamed of killing people and had voices in his head.” Their relationship had ended because of his mental health struggles, she said.
An investigation into White’s allegations led to the man being convicted of driving without insurance. He was fined and disqualified from driving. White refused to provide a statement in support of the investigation.
A professional standards officer found White’s ex had been uninsured for large parts of their relationship. White claimed she had believed he was insured during that time. She also claimed the relationship was not serious though she admitted he had moved in with her after three months of dating. According to White her ex had gaslit her and had been coercive and controlling towards her.
Asked about her allegation of cannabis use, she said she had held this suspicion because she had smelled the drug on her ex. But she said she did not have any other evidence of drug use and had only been “guessing”. White claimed that she did not actually believe he had been driving under the influence and that the information “didn’t come out in way it was intended” during her calls to Dyfed-Powys Police.
The panel heard White had waited a week to call police after her ex had told her he planned to buy a gun. She blamed the delay on the alleged controlling nature of the relationship. She said she did not take her ex’s claim about buying a gun seriously because he was “a Walter Mitty type, a daydreamer,” and it was sometimes easier to “go along with the delusions” to avoid an argument. She claimed the gun in the boot was just a pellet gun — which she had not mentioned previously — though she did not give an explanation for why she believed this. White also claimed her ex had never expressed a serious intention to buy a firearm.
Asked why she made the third call, she said her ex had driven past her and this had raised her concerns about the alleged pellet gun. She denied calling to get him in trouble or because the relationship had ended. White insisted she had done so following a period of “reflection” after the breakup. She claimed her ex had become more aggressive after their split and that this had prompted her to make the reports. When he was prosecuted for driving without insurance she did not provide a statement because she was afraid of “reprisal”, she claimed.
There was no dispute over White’s claim that her ex had a history of domestic violence. She had received this information from Clare’s Law — a scheme which gives people the right to ask police if their partner has an abusive past. He had historic “domestic abuse flags” and convictions for violence, the hearing was told.
Assistant chief constable Wendy Gunney, who chaired the panel, said White may have been aware of the driving while disqualified as far back as January 2023 and had “certainly known long enough to report it earlier”. Ms Gunney also pointed to inconsistencies in White’s evidence about the alleged cannabis use and gun possession. “The panel finds she did believe he was in possession of a firearm before she reported it as an afterthought,” Ms Gunney added.
The assistant chief constable said White had ignored her duty to report potential criminal activity. “We have considered whether emotional control was exercised by her ex-partner but we do not accept this. She could have reported the matters promptly but chose not to. She put her own interests first until the end of the relationship changed what she wanted to do.”
Ahead of the hearing White resigned and admitted gross misconduct. The panel found she had deliberately breached policing standards including honesty and integrity. “There was a risk of harm to the public and to the ex-partner’s children which it was her duty to mitigate,” said Ms Gunney. “She did not do so. In her interview she sought to conceal and explain away her wrongdoing.”
The panel placed White’s name on the police barred list. Join our WhatsApp news community here for the latest breaking news.
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