Police inspector who met sex worker and fled without paying now named

CONOR GOGARTY Investigations editor [e-mail]

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A POLICE inspector who met a sex worker and then “abandoned” her without paying can be named as Justin Ellerton after we and our sister titles challenged an anonymity order.

Ellerton, who had been a Llanelli neighbourhood inspector, resigned from Dyfed-Powys Police in February having admitted gross misconduct with a “known sex worker”.

The following month, a misconduct hearing saw him barred from serving as a police officer.

The hearing was told he had “instigated contact” with the woman, which continued for four weeks and included him sending messages while on and off duty.

His intent, the force said, was to secure her sexual services. The misconduct culminated on June 4 last year when the off-duty officer collected the sex worker from her home and took her to “a location in the Morriston area, where she was led to believe she was to be paid for her sexual services”. Instead, he “abandoned the female in the locality” before making off, according to Dyfed-Powys Police.

The decision to anonymise Ellerton and withhold his rank was made by Ian Arundale, who retired as the force’s chief constable in 2012 and now chairs his misconduct hearings. He banned the media from naming the officer in order to avoid any impact on “the wellbeing of other persons”.

On the one hand, it is concerning anonymity was granted on such flimsy grounds. On the other, it should be recognised that, after a legal challenge, Dyfed-Powys Police overturned the decision. This willingness to correct a mistake stands in stark contrast to South Wales Police's handling of another misconduct case we covered recently.

South Wales Police is hiding the name of “Officer F”, who earlier this year was barred from policing after he admitted the criminal offence of illegally accessing computer material.

Across two years, the corrupt officer repeatedly accessed the force system and leaked information to five members of the public.