A 41-year-old former Merseyside police officer has been found not guilty of misconduct in public office on Friday after the judge ruled that insufficient evidence was provided.
Prosecutors stated Ryan Connolly took three selfies while guarding the cordon at the scene where 16-year-old Daniel Gee Jamieson died in Liverpool in 2018. He was also accused of taking and sending 24 photographs of people under arrest or detained at police stations, hospitals or mental health premises, and 23 images of information from force computer systems.
In a court statement, one woman, photographed hiding in a cupboard said she found it ‘degrading and upsetting’. Connolly is also accused of sending a photo of a missing child who had been taken to a police station as a place of safety.
Connolly was on trial at Manchester Crown Court charged with four counts of misconduct in a judicial or public office. On Friday, Judge Nicolas Dean KC, discharged the jury as the evidence was ‘incapable of demonstrating serious misconduct’. Earlier in the week, prosecuting barrister Peter Wilson told jurors the ‘sensitivity’ of the images meant they amounted to ‘an abuse of the public’s trust’.
Jurors were told the images were found in a WhatsApp ‘sent messages’ folder on Connolly’s phone, but investigators could not identify recipients in most cases because the accompanying messages were no longer available.
Detective Constable Kayleigh Greaves told the court there was no ‘policing’ or ‘evidential’ purpose to the images, and that they were not entered onto force computer systems.
Connolly was dismissed from his role in 2021 for gross misconduct. At the time, Ian Critchley, the then deputy chief constable, said that Connolly’s actions were ‘beyond comprehension and are not in keeping with the high standards and values that we expect here at Merseyside Police’.
Prosecutors have until Monday to decide if they wish to appeal the verdict. In different proceedings, Connelly will be sentenced on Monday after admitting a separate offence of three counts of possession of extreme pornographic images.
