POLICEMAN SACKED AFTER ADMITTING ONLINE GROOMING CHARGES
2019.A police sergeant who confessed to two charges of child grooming after sending an indecent image to an undercover officer has been dismissed from his position for gross misconduct by West Midlands Police.
Officer Stephen Shaw was dismissed without notice on Wednesday following a misconduct hearing led by his Chief Constable.
The hearing took place after Shaw was charged and appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court in August.
During the court proceedings, Shaw admitted to trying to incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and to engaging in sexual communication with a minor.
The misconduct hearing revealed that Shaw had sent messages to a social media account operated by an officer pretending to be a 12-year-old girl.
Shaw, who is married, was arrested on August 22 and appeared in court the next day.
He had attempted to communicate sexually with a person he believed was a young girl, making comments about his age and sexual acts in online chats.
A lawyer acting for Shaw said the officer had never met with a child he had chatted to online and had “half expected” the profile he had contacted to be an adult posing as a youngster.
