Misconduct hearing for police officer accused of passing information about Wigan man to ex-partner

The hearing, which is being held remotely, was told the case involves accusations that DI Johnston passed information from the police system about Bamfurlong resident Kieran Jones to Hayley Mason, who had previously been in relationships with both men.

Opening the case, James Berry alleged there was “an obvious chain” from DI Johnston’s wife and fellow police officer DI Joanne Johnston, who was accessing the system, to her husband to Ms Mason.

This, Mr Berry alleged, would be a “breach of the standards of professional behaviour” as there was “no policing purpose” in DI Johnston having the information concerning Mr Jones.

However, the misconduct hearing also heard that DI Johnston, who is being represented by Nicholas Walker, strongly denies the accusation against him.

There is no dispute that the information about Mr Jones was on the police system and that DI Joanne Johnston (who was then a detective sergant) was on the phone to DI Johnston at the time she was accessing the information.

The fact that DI Johnston spoke to Ms Mason on the phone later that day is also not disputed, the panel was told.

However, DI Johnston’s case is that his wife did not give him any information about Mr Jones except for the most basic details and he did not mention any of this when he then spoke to Ms Mason.

Ms Mason told the hearing she was on a family holiday in Portugal in August 2018 when she received an anonymous call from someone who told her not to take the child she had with Mr Jones, who was called Child One during the hearing, back to his property as it was unsafe. The call mentioned police involvement.

Ms Mason was adamant this man on the phone was not DI Johnston, saying she had been married to him for 11 years and knew his voice.

She told the hearing that when she rang Wigan social services she was told there had been an incident involving knives and Mr Jones had been cut but not stabbed.

Under firm questioning from Mr Berry Ms Mason repeatedly denied that the anonymous caller was DI Johnston, that she in fact had been given information about Mr Jones and it had been her who then passed this on to Wigan Council’s employees.

She equally vehemently denied that DI Johnston was the source of information she put in an email to the family court about the ongoing case involving herself and Mr Jones.

Chloe Charnock, who was a social worker for the local authority at the time, said she spoke to Ms Mason on Wednesday August 22 2018 in which she asked if there was anything she needed to know.

Ms Charnock said a police note had been added to Child One’s file about an incident but as no children were at the property there would be no action from social services.

Mr Walker said there was no record on the logs of calls from Ms Mason on the previous Saturday and then on the Monday when she said she was given details of the burglary.

Ms Charnock said she would have expected these calls to be logged and would not have given that much information to Ms Mason, but couldn’t rule out colleagues deciding to do differently.

She also said her conversation on the Wednesday gave no hint Ms Mason had recently spoken to social services.

Although she couldn’t say it was not possible calls were not logged in the system, she said the computer would have flagged if anyone had looked at Child One’s records.

The hearing heard Ms Mason had been told she had parental rights to stop Child One’s contact with Mr Jones after the burglary but this was not social services advice.

As the complainant Mr Jones’ statement was read by the panel and incorporated into the evidence but not gone over in the hearing.

Mr Jones was asked if he was aware that people might be passing information about his life back to Ms Mason, and he said he knew nothing about this.

He was also asked about bringing the complaint and he told the hearing he simply wanted “answers”, saying his belief that there had been wrongdoing by DI Johnston had left him unable to trust the police and feeling vulnerable in case burglars targeted his home again.

Mr Jones said he did not want DI Johnston sacked and had nothing against the police but merely wanted the matters he had raised addressed.

He said it was the information put to the family court which had made him suspicious.

Questioned by Mr Berry, Mr Jones said he spoke to very few people about the burglary, only discussing it with his parents, his brother and a friend he went training with.

Tribunal judge Paul Forster is chairing the three-man panel looking at the allegations, with Superintendent Debbie Dooley and independent member James Richardson also presiding.

Today the final witnesses for the authority will be called before the defence will hear evidence from DI Johnston himself, with the whole case schedule to run until Friday.

The hearing continues.

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