Sussex PC sacked after using police databases to snoop on his ex-wife

Forrest Knight made fake reports to justify himself

A copper from Sussex has been kicked off the force after using his police privileges to snoop on his estranged, and subsequently divorced, wife.

PC Forrest Knight, 48, was dismissed from Sussex Police without notice after a gross misconduct panel found on Wednesday that he had accessed computer systems “without good reason and on one occasion, [disclosed] the content of a police serial to a third party.”

According to the force, PC Knight had been “under considerable stress in his private life following the breakdown of his marriage” when he wrongfully “accessed the force's command and control and intelligence systems in March 2014.”

Knight accessed the systems to input information on “contacts associated” with his wife, who at the time was estranged from him, and is now divorced. He apparently believed that his doing so “was a lawful policing purpose.”

As the force noted, he was however, “given advice on the first occasion that he did so, but continued to access the systems with specific searches connected with his private life.”

In April 2015, [Knight] made a false report to Sussex Police that his then partner was a 'cause for concern' as she had failed to respond to his text and phone contact.

He then went on to access this record on the force's command and control system on three occasions and, in doing so, noted her car had been caught on an ANPR camera.

He phoned her the following day and told her this information. The officer denied passing this information and claimed she must have obtained information about the location of the camera from a police documentary.

This explanation was not accepted by the panel.

The ex-cop was found to have committed gross misconduct on four counts involving access to police information and systems, alongside misconduct with regard to having entered incorrect duty times in his computer record.

During the panel's hearing on Wednesday, Knight's solicitor alleged his client was being subjected to double jeopardy, as the first of Knight's offences had been dealt with by management advice from his supervisor.

The panel chair, Assistant Chief Constable Robin Smith, dismissed this claim, and noted that "the management action taken at the time was incorrect and he was 'disturbed' that the incident had not been referred immediately to the Professional Standards Department."

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry said: "It is important to show that the force has the ability to fairly investigate its own staff and this highlights our determination not to allow the name of Sussex Police to be tainted, nor bring into disrepute the enormous amount of good work carried out day-to-day by thousands of hard-working and enormously dedicated police officers and staff." ®