Police leader comments to widow were gross misconduct
· BBC NewsDave Gilyeat & PA Media
BBC News
A former police leader committed gross misconduct by making a sexual comment about a police widow, a tribunal has heard.
John Apter, 55, who was chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, faced a Hampshire Constabulary disciplinary tribunal over the incident with Lissie Harper, who was married to PC Andrew Harper.
PC Harper, from Wallingford in Oxfordshire, was killed while responding to a quad bike theft in Berkshire in 2019.
But Mr Apter was cleared of making a comment about a colleague and of touching a woman's bottom.
Hampshire Constabulary disciplinary tribunal's legally qualified chair Giles Pengelly said of John Apter's conduct: "We find the comment made about Lissie Harper proved and is proved to the level of gross misconduct."
Three teenagers were jailed for PC Harper's manslaughter in 2020. The Thames Valley Police officer died just four weeks after getting married.
Mr Apter was found by the panel, sitting at Hampshire Constabulary's strategic headquarters in Eastleigh, to have said that he would like to "comfort" Mrs Harper in his hotel room, shortly before she collected a posthumous award on behalf of her late husband.
It ruled that Mr Apter had made the comment during a staff "huddle" during preparations for the ceremony at the annual Roads Policing Conference in January 2020.
Mrs Harper was made an MBE in 2022 for her campaign to strengthen the law in his memory, which was known as Harper's Law.
The panel cleared Mr Apter of a second allegation that he said in early 2019 to a pregnant Police Federation colleague: "Maybe you'll get a bum now."
And the panel also cleared him of an allegation that he had touched the bottom of a woman, referred to as Female A, at a restaurant while visiting London for the National Police Bravery Awards in December 2021 before asking her: "Is that okay?"
He denied the three allegations, which followed an investigation ordered by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and told the tribunal that he "absolutely" had not made the comments.
He said he had only "scratched" the woman's upper back, and added that he found the claims "deeply hurtful".
Mr Apter has previously spoken out against the use of sexist nicknames as part of a canteen culture in the police in 2021, after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer.
He told the hearing that he had "challenged" inappropriate behaviour by police officers and stood by his public comments about misogyny.
The allegations against Mr Apter first emerged at the end of 2021, after which he was suspended from Hampshire Constabulary and his chairman role.
Previously, a criminal inquiry into the claims was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Mr Apter, who had a 30-year police career, chaired Hampshire Police Federation from 2010 and the national federation from 2018.
That represents more than 130,000 officers from the rank of constable to chief inspector.
The hearing was adjourned for the panel to consider its sanction against Mr Apter.
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