Police officer accused of lying about nightclub assault could be sacked

Police Constable Liam Simonet has been charged with gross misconduct and will face a two-day disciplinary hearing, which is due to begin on April 13.

According to the force, the off-duty officer phoned 999 in the early hours of May 13 last year, after he was kicked out of Acapulco Nightclub in Halifax.

The officer, who had been drinking, claimed that he had been punched by a bouncer during an altercation.

West Yorkshire Police said Simonet accessed the log “without a policing purpose” later that day, at around 10.40pm, when he was still off duty and updated it to say the incident should be closed because he was dealing with the matter and there was no CCTV.

But officers obtained CCTV footage of the incident and it appeared to show that Simonet was “the aggressor” and there was “no evidence that he had been punched”, the force added.

If the allegations are proved during the disciplinary hearing, at the force’s headquarters in Wakefield, the officer could be dismissed without notice.

It comes after former West Yorkshire Police officer Lee Parker was given a suspended prison sentence, after he admitted slapping a woman’s bottom and exposing himself to members of the public during a night out.

The 40-year-old police constable, who resigned while he was under investigation, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault on a female and one count of outraging public decency.

He was sentenced to 32 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, and put on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

A force spokesman said the offences all occurred on December 14 in 2021, while Parker was in a Leeds bar on a night out.