Nottingham attacks: Special constable sacked after viewing body-worn footage of dying victims
A special constable has been sacked for viewing body-worn camera footage of two students in their final moments after they had been stabbed in the street after a night out.
Friends Grace O'Malley Kumar and Barnaby Webber were killed last June during the attacks in Nottingham city centre.
A short time afterwards, school caretaker Ian Coates was also knifed to death by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane.
Almost 180 police staff were found to have viewed material relating to the case, with 11 of them having no "legitimate reason" to do so.
Sky News understands that the special constable was dealt with at an "accelerated misconduct hearing" chaired by the chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police, Kate Meynell, and held in private.
It is understood he viewed footage of officers and paramedics providing medical help to Grace and Barnaby at the scene, and after they had passed away, on his police laptop.
As well as being dismissed, he has also been barred from working as a police officer.
Sky News understands, too, that there is an ongoing gross misconduct investigation into a member of staff who was arrested and interviewed after accessing evidence to which she had no legitimate policing purpose.
Sanjoy Kumar, Grace's father, told Sky News he was "appalled" by the incident.
"I'm disgusted, it's absolutely morbid voyeurism. As parents we feel broken-hearted about it," he said.
"Everything from Nottinghamshire Police has been piecemeal, there is something else all the time. Why weren't we told about the misconduct hearing? We would have gone to it."
In January, PC Matt Gell was found guilty of gross misconduct and given a final written warning after he looked up records relating to Calocane when he had no part in the investigation.
He had also forwarded a WhatsApp message with "crude and distasteful" descriptions about the incident to people outside the force.
Sky News understands the message contained a graphic account of the injuries sustained by the victims.
'Abhorrent voyeurism'
The officer who sent the message received a "management intervention".
On Tuesday, Barnaby's mother, Emma Webber, called the situation "sickening" and told Sky News it was "abhorrent voyeurism and it's inexcusable".
Deputy Chief Constable Steve Cooper said action over the WhatsApp message was taken "immediately".
"Some of the words were crude and distasteful. It was a single message and no images were taken or shared," he said.
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Superintendent Andrew Reynolds, head of Nottinghamshire Police's Professional Standards Directorate, said: "We identified 22 people who had viewed material related to the Nottingham attacks case, also known as Operation Hendrix, which we had concerns about.
"Following our thorough investigation, we narrowed this down to 11 members of staff who did not have a legitimate reason to view some of the material in this case.
"Eight of these members of staff were handed non-disciplinary performance interventions, which is focused around learning, and three faced formal discipline - one member of staff has been sacked, one handed a final written warning and one is waiting for their misconduct hearing to be heard."
Police conduct referral
Nottinghamshire Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after the families of the victims raised a number of concerns over the investigation.
The College of Policing is also conducting a review of how the force handled the case.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Victoria Prentice told the families that the Court of Appeal would decide whether Calocane's sentence was too lenient.
He was detained at a high security hospital after prosecutors accepted his manslaughter plea and did not pursue a murder trial due to his history of mental illness.
