A disgraced police officer contacted four different drug dealers to get hold of cocaine in one night as his habit spiralled out of control.
Former Merseyside Police constable Jonathan Brown was arrested in August last year after buying the Class A drug from a dealer outside a pub in Wigan. His arrest not only ended his career earlier this year, but also saw his partner and fellow officer, PC Chloe Fitton, booted out of the force this week.
A misconduct hearing convened to decide PC Fitton's fate heard that the couple appeared to have taken drugs together overnight from June 9 into June 10, 2022, according to messages seized from Brown's phone.
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George Thomas, representing Merseyside Police at the hearing, told the independent misconduct panel that messages spanning until 3am on the 10th showed attempts by Brown to contact four dealers, despite the couple being at home with their baby.
Messages between the pair later that day confirmed he had been successful. After Brown asked Fitton she was feeling, she described feeling "rough" and was advised to eat "food and plenty of water".
Brown then said: "I’m so sorry I let last night happen I’m embarrassed and p***** off at myself for doing that when [their baby] was there."
PC Fitton replied: "I’m just so ashamed we it happened when [the baby] was there xxx”.
But Brown's cocaine use had been a source of tension between the pair for a considerable length of time, and the messages revealed how Fitton moaning at her boyfriend for "getting wired" and being "out until 4am sniffing", and even going out and taking cocaine "two or three times" while off on paternity leave.
Mr Thomas even told the panel in November 2021, PC Brown had sent anguished messages to his partner after undergoing a drug test at work, saying he was scared "he is going to lose everything" but hoping the drug had cleared his system.
PC Fitton responded: "All we can do baby is hope hope hope your (sic) drank enough water etc to flush it out x". Mr Thomas said that test in fact came back negative, but rather than learn his lesson PC Brown appeared to continue with his regular drug use.
In May last year, an extraordinary exchange exposed how an exasperated Fitton berated Brown after finding a packet of cocaine "stuck to her foot". She said: Why have I been sat on the sofa and got a bag with stuff in stuck to my f****** foot…Are you doing it that much you lose track of where it is?"
In another "matter of fact" message a few days later she said: "I need to clean before I bring the baby down I’m paranoid about there being Coke on stuff [they] touch".
Brown pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine at Manchester Magistrates' Court and resigned before a misconduct hearing in February this year. Chief Constable Serena Kennedy concluded that he would have been sacked had he remained on the force.
His arrest led to a referral to social services, over concerns about the couple's child potentially being present while a parent was under the influence of drugs. One social worker, who cannot be named but gave evidence at the hearing, called PC Fitton to have an initial "screening" conversation.
In a contemporaneous note she made of the call, she recorded that PC Fitton said she had "had zero tolerance" for drugs as a police officer and was "shocked" to learn that her boyfriend had been arrested, an assertion the panel found was "dishonest" based on the content of the messages.
Fitton challenged the misconduct case brought by the force's Professional Standards Department in written statements provided ahead of the hearing, but declined to attend and did not give evidence in her own defence.
The panel, chaired by independent solicitor David Tyme, found Fitton guilty of gross misconduct for breaching standards around challenging and reporting improper conduct, honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct.
George Thomas, representing Merseyside Police at the hearing, said the only "appropriate sanction" given their findings of gross misconduct was to sack PC Fitton without notice.
Referring to her own drug use, he said: "That of course is tantamount to criminal conduct. It's extremely serious for an officer to take Class A drugs off duty; how could they be expected to take appropriate action against those individuals that supply Class A drugs, if they are themselves a user of drugs supplied by drug dealers?
"It strikes at the heart of confidence in the police."
The panel agreed and Fitton was dismissed without notice. Chief Superintendent Jennifer Wilson, head of the force’s Professional Standards Department, said: “I hope that the result of the hearing sends a clear message that we simply will not tolerate this type of behaviour from our officers and staff.
“The public quite rightly have high expectations of our officers and staff which we seek to uphold to ensure we meet those expectations. When those standards are not met, we will take swift and effective action to ensure that we retain the public’s confidence in the force.
“The unacceptable action of individuals will not be allowed to damage the good name built up by the vast majority of our officers and staff who do an exemplary job and work day in, day out to ensure that all of our communities are protected.”