Police constable who 'cut corners' failed victim of domestic abuse at 'every step'

A POLICEMAN who endangered a domestic abuse victim by filing misleading reports to “cut corners” would have been sacked if he had not quit, a misconduct hearing has heard.

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Former Police Constable Anthony Crofts and a colleague were called to a house in Nottingham on February 4 last year after a neighbour heard two women in a heated row.

When Crofts arrived, he was told by one of the women that she had been assaulted, strangled and falsely imprisoned by her ex-partner - who had also allegedly stolen £40 from her.

However, even though she had claimed to have been injured by the other woman, the officer recorded the incident as a verbal altercation and made no record of any injuries after filling in forms with what were described as “made-up” answers.

This was despite the woman telling the officer that her arm was injured and making allegations against her ex more than three times.

As a result, the actions of Crofts who resigned in late March were examined yesterday by the misconduct hearing to decide if they amounted to gross misconduct.

At Nottinghamshire Police’s Sherwood Lodge headquarters, Lorena Veale, counsel for the force, said its view was that Crofts had failed the victim at “every step”.

She said: “He deliberately cut corners. If offences are alleged he was under a duty to record those offences and take positive action.