Yorkshire police officer who stalked woman after abusive relationship is guilty of gross misconduct

Michael Parker was jailed for five years, after he was convicted of two offences following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court in July, and hit with a 10-year restraining order.

The former police officer subjected a colleague he was in a relationship with to controlling or coercive behaviour, between January 2019 and April 2020, and he then stalked her for around three months.

According to the force, he told her what to do and were to go. He also bombarded her with text messages, phone calls and radio messages, demanding her to tell him where she was and who she was with.

At a hearing earlier this month, a misconduct panel ruled that his actions amounted to gross misconduct and he would have been dismissed by North Yorkshire Police if he was still serving.

Parker, who was working as an officer in York until he was arrested in November 2020, claims he is innocent and will be appealing.

But North Yorkshire Police stated the allegations have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt in court and there are a number of witnesses who provided evidence about the “the abusive nature of the relationship”.

Chief Constable Lisa Winward, who chaired the misconduct panel, said Parker was found to have caused “psychological and physical harm” to his victim.

In her ruling, she said: “Having assessed the misconduct here as serious misconduct, which caused both direct harm to a victim that amounts to violence against women and girls, it is also an aggravating factor in respect of the seriousness of the allegations.

“It also has the potential to cause serious damage to the public confidence in the police, and bearing in mind that the misconduct was so serious that it also amounted to an offence of coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking, in my judgement the only appropriate outcome is one of dismissal without notice had the officer still been serving.

“No lesser alternative adequately protects public confidence in the police service, uphold standards in policing and protects the public.”