Police officers ignored emergency calls to have sex in car while on duty

Sgt Molly Edwards and PC Richard Paton, both married with children, had their affair exposed after bosses bugged patrol vehicle

Two married police officers ignored call outs to a burglary and hospital to engage in sexual activity in their patrol car while on duty.

Sergeant Molly Edwards and PC Richard Paton resigned from Surrey Police last month after their affair was exposed by suspicious bosses who bugged their car.

A disciplinary panel was told how Paton was heard saying “Aww, let’s just get naked” only moments before an urgent 4.51am radio request to attend a burglary at a Curry’s store on 29 September 2019.

The pair failed to attend despite being parked up just 25 minutes away from the scene at “normal speed”, the panel heard.

They also ignored an earlier call at 4.17am to attend a hospital just 15 minutes away to help two victims of a serious assault outside a nightclub so they could carry on their sexual activity.

The colleagues, who are both married and have children, denied having sexual intercourse in the marked police car while on duty but admitted to engaging in sexual activity.

Panel chair John Bassett said in an adjudication report that while some of the secret recordings captured “verbal expressions of sexual fantasies”, their sexual activity “clearly involved the removal of some of their clothing, kissing, the exposure of [Edwards’s] breasts” and Paton pleasuring her.

The misconduct hearing was held in their absence on 16 August after they both resigned and chose not to attend.

The panel found four allegations of gross misconduct were proven and both would have been sacked from the force if still in the job.

The first count alleged the pair “engaged in sexual activity whilst on duty in a police vehicle in a public space” between June and September 2019.

In a written response before her resignation, Edwards wrote: “I enjoyed the time we had together, but I became aware that what we were doing was wrong and would say to him that we should put a stop to it.”

She said the sexual activity only took place on 28 and 29 September 2019 – when the car was bugged.

However, while the panel concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove the affair had been going on for three months, it ruled the relationship had been ongoing since at least the beginning of September 2019.

Mr Bassett’s adjudication report includes a conversation between the two officers in which Edwards asks: “How have we gone from three weeks ago to this?” on 29 September 2019.

The second count accused the pair of failing to discharge their professional duties by failing respond to the call outs to the Curry’s store in Woking and Frimley Park Hospital.

Edwards claimed they had not attended the hospital to secure forensic evidence from the assault victims because they had attended the scene at the nightclub earlier and there was a risk of cross-contamination.

However the panel ruled they did not want their sexual activity to be interrupted.

Both officers were also accused of actively mislead their manager as to the state of their relationship, while and Paton was heard using racist language about a former Asian colleague and Edwards failed to challenge or report the remarks.