Former police officer

guilty of misconduct in
public office over rape
investigation
The case
A former Essex police officer today admitted
misconduct in public office after failing to investigate a
serious allegation of rape.
Gaon Hart, Senior Crown Advocate in the CPS Special
Crime Division, said: "Hannah Notley was acting as a
specially trained sexual offences investigator with an
appreciation of the potentially devastating impact of
her actions.
"PC Notley lied to bosses and the victim claiming that
the CPS had advised police not to charge the case. This
could have left a vulnerable victim without justice."
Since the investigation of the case was reopened, the
suspect has been charged with rape.
Hannah Notley will be sentenced at Southwark Crown
Court on 6 December 2013.

The case
The facts
A specially trained sexual offences officer, the officer informed both the
victim and her bosses. Lying that the CPS had directed the police on
not charging the suspect.
By not charging the case the suspect would not have been charged and
the victim would be left without justice. Although since the case of
misconduct has been brought to light the suspect has since been
charged with rape.
Importance
It important that cases such as this come to light as the police have many powers
and abusing them can be easily done, it is essential that misconduct is not a regular
occurrence within the police. Due to the way in which the CPS and Police work
together there is a margin for errors and misconduct such as this to take place. For
instance the Police investigate a case passing the information onto the CPS for
them to decide whether it should be charged or not, powers have been transferred
as it use to be the police who would investigate and prosecute a case. Although
powers are being transferred back to the police under the coalition government.
Criminal Justice System
The working of the criminal justice system was changed under the
New Labour government, to give the CPS more powers taken from
the police. This was done to improve efficiency, by doing this more
cases resulted in a prosecution under the CPS than the police.
Resulting in far fewer cases being dropped because of lack of
evidence.
Although this has been effective the coalition government now what
to hand back more powers to the police.
Impact
With Police scandals featuring more regularly in news it is more than
likely to start effecting the relationship between the police and the
public. This is because the public will not trust the ways in which the
police work, as there are stories about misconduct within the police. A
recent and major story being about the New of the World phone
hacking scandal, involving many high figures within the police force.
The End
Thank you for listening!