A former Wiltshire Police officer who brushed his head against a colleague’s groin and showed off videos of himself having sex would have been dismissed from the force if he had not already resigned.
A misconduct hearing held in Devizes regarding the actions of PC Tomas Murphy found that he had breached the standards of professional behaviour expected by emergency service staff.
During the work Christmas party at the Slug and Lettuce in Bath on December 9, 2024, Murphy decided – unprompted - to show three other officers videos from his phone which showed sex acts involving him and various women.
One of those three colleagues later experienced unwanted physical contact during a night shift on December 30, 2024, when Murphy placed his head next to the officer’s groin and made contact with the area on more than one occasion, which the anonymous victim found “disturbing” and "not consensual".
According to an account of the allegations, published on the Wiltshire Police website, this incident occurred while they were in the Swindon Town Centre Police Point and needed a security pass to open a door.
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The allegation reads: “PC Murphy was telling everyone that he was tired because he had been having sex all morning before starting work.
“PC A did not have his pass, so he asked former PC Murphy to open the door.
“PC Murphy moved in front of him and dropped his security pass on the floor, bent down to pick it up, and as he was standing up, his head brushed against PC A’s crotch area and made contact with his penis through his clothes.
“Former PC Murphy apologised… then immediately dropped his pass and did the same thing again. PC A felt very awkward but laughed it off.”
When interviewed about the Christmas party, Murphy said he had been “acting a clown, acting like an idiot” and claimed that the videos he had shown were filmed with the women’s consent, but could not recall the second incident.
He resigned the week before the misconduct hearing and did not attend it.
His representative noted that Murphy accepted most of the gross misconduct allegations and “the gravity and seriousness of the matter”, but disputed the allegation that he had not obtained the consent of the women in the videos for showing them to others.
There was not enough evidence for the panel to prove that consent was not obtained prior to the showing of the videos.
Murphy had provided details about the participants which Wiltshire Police could have followed up to check with them, but the force did not do so.
Murphy’s representative suggested that the former officer wanted to apologise for any offence or stress caused as his ex-colleagues “were also friends and he regretted his actions”.
The summary of the hearing noted: “He had very fond memories working for Wiltshire Police and was sorry that it had ended in this way.”
The panel found that former PC Murphy showing the explicit videos to others was “misogynistic and showed a lack of respect for women”, that the unwanted physical contact caused “psychological distress” to that officer, and that his conduct caused reputational harm to the policing profession which would “clearly affect public confidence in the police”.
The panel acknowledged and gave credit for the fact that former PC Murphy had made extensive admissions, shown remorse, and apologised through his representative at the hearing.
They noted that his actions were considered to have caused “a lower level of culpability or harm”.
The former officer has not been placed on the Barred List.
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