Met officer sacked for accessing confidential Sarah Everard case files

The files related to the case of Sarah Everard, who was killed by a serving Met office in 2021 (Picture: Family Handout/PA Wire)

A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been kicked out of the force after accessing confidential and sensitive files about the case of Sarah Everard.

PC Myles McHugh, along with former trainee detective constable Hannah Rebbeck and Sergeant Mark Harper, looked at the case without having reason to do so.

They were found to have committed gross misconduct after a three-week disciplinary tribunal in south east London.

Ms Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by then-serving Met officer Wayne Couzens over the course of March 3 and 4 2021.

The panel said McHugh’s behaviour was at the ‘higher end of harm’. He was dismissed without notice for repeatedly accessing the police system on matters which had nothing to do with his duties.

He looked at personal data that was ‘very sensitive’ and ‘he attempted to discuss what he had seen with his colleagues’, according to panel chairwoman Sharmistha Michaels.

She said he acted out of a ‘curiosity’ about the investigation as he accessed data ‘extensively and accumulatively’ but stopped looking for the information after Couzens was arrested.

After the hearing, the Met said the panel heard that PC McHugh accessed the information while off duty and for a significant period of time.

The case led to criticism of the Metropolitan Police (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Rebbeck, who has already left the Met, was found to have repeatedly accessed sensitive data without any link to her duties.

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The panel said she would have been dismissed without notice if she was still on the force.

The panel ruled the breaches of professional standards were so serious in the cases of McHugh and Rebbeck that the only appropriate outcome was dismissal.

Sergeant Harper was handed a final written warning, to last for three years.

Couzens is serving a whole life sentence for Ms Everard’s murder.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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