Former Shropshire police officer would have been sacked had he not resigned
An accelerated misconduct hearing has found a former West Mercia Police officer would have been sacked from the force had he not already resigned.
Rhett Wilson, 28, who was previously based in Shropshire, was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to discreditable conduct at a hearing.
In January this year, he was sentenced to 2 years and 10 months after he was convicted of perverting the course of justice and police corruption. He was found guilty of perverting the course of justice following a trial at Worcester Crown Court on 8 December 2022, he had previously pleaded guilty to three police corruption offences.
On Friday, the accelerated misconduct hearing, heard how he abused his position for sexual purposes between December 2019 to April 2020.
Wilson joined the force in April 2019 and the offences began in December that year. He was arrested on March 10 2020, just days after a referral was made to the force’s professional standards department. He was interviewed over the next 48 hours and then suspended on March 12. He resigned from the force in July 2020 whilst under investigation.
The hearing was chaired by Chief Constable Pippa Mills.
Following the outcome, she said: “Rhett Wilson’s actions were thoroughly reprehensible, and I recognise his behaviour would damage the public’s trust in the police. I would like to offer my assurances to the public that West Mercia Police will not tolerate this sort of behaviour and we will continue to root out corrupt officers and staff who fall below the threshold that is expected of them.
"Wilson will now be added to the College of Policing’s Barred List banning him from working for a UK police service in the future.”
