DS Mark Spencer, a former senior Thames Valley Police officer is undergoing a gross misconduct hearing due to allegations of “gazing at female colleagues’ breasts and legs, inappropriately touching them, and causing feelings of intimidation.”
Former Detective Superintendent Mark Spencer, stationed at Thames Valley Police headquarters, purportedly violated “numerous standards of professional conduct” and “participated in inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.”
He is scheduled to attend a gross misconduct tribunal at the Thames Valley Police’s headquarters in Kidlington on Monday, November 18.
The hearing is expected to last for five days.
It is claimed that Mark Spencer “having been warned about his behaviour towards women, failed to act in accordance with that advice”.
He “stared inappropriately at women inside and outside of the workplace” and “had inappropriate and suggestive conversations with junior members of staff”.
It is also claimed Mark Spencer “pursued a course of conduct of sexual harassment towards women by staring at their breasts and legs, invading their personal space, touching and making them feel objectified and intimidated”.
UPDATE on the Thames Valley Police Nonce
A former senior police officer, DS Mark Spencer, deemed “predatory,” routinely gazed at the breasts of female co-workers and behaved inappropriately towards other women, according to a panel’s findings.
Detective Superintendent Mark Spencer’s behaviour was deemed unsatisfactory for nearly a decade till 2022.
Several women reported that the former Thames Valley Police officer would gaze at their chests as if it were a “compulsion” and described him as having a “typical ‘wandering eye’.”
The panel characterised Mr. Mark Spencer’s defence, claiming he was “very socially awkward” and prone to avoiding eye contact, as “fanciful.” It was determined that had he not already departed from TVP, he would have been terminated.
Mr. Mark Spencer was rumoured to possess a “reputation” within certain circles of the force, being characterised as a “perv” and a “letch.”
He asserted that some women may have erroneously perceived him as gazing at their breasts when he was attempting to avert eye contact.
The panel stated, “This raises the question: ‘If the officer was evading eye contact with female colleagues, why did his gaze frequently, if not invariably, gravitate towards their breast areas?'”
Mr. Mark Spencer, who served throughout the Thames Valley for the police department, was “highly esteemed,” and the panel stated that his “professionalism and competencies [were] not in question.”
However, it was said that inappropriate conduct persisted despite his female supervisor informing him that he was unsettling certain colleagues.
In a separate incident, he was discovered to have employed winking emojis in communications and exhibited excessive familiarity with a subordinate female colleague.
The panel stated that he occupied senior positions and that his behaviour constituted a misuse of his authority and the trust bestowed upon him by both the Thames Valley Police and his colleagues.
While at Thames Valley Police headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, it was determined that it was “reasonable, proportionate, and appropriate” to conclude that Mr. Spencer would have been terminated had he not resigned months previously.
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