A DISGRACED police officer described as a “brutally honest man” has been dismissed from his duties for covering up an investigation of a colleague who created malicious child sex claims.

PC Stephen Wright, of Cleveland Police, dishonestly acted as the employer of PC Kelly Jarvis on a job application form when she applied to work with vulnerable children after resigning from the force last year.

PC Wright gave PC Jarvis a glowing reference, despite her being under investigation at the time for a harassing a former friend, Fiona Miller, who she falsely accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy.

A Cleveland Police misconduct panel heard yesterday that PC Jarvis secured a role with Reach Out Care and underwent full training on the back of PC Wright’s dishonest reference.

However, a Reach Out Care employee “Googled” PC Jarvis and accessed media reports on her campaign of harassment against Ms Miller – with PC Jarvis then being dismissed from the post.

PC Wright described himself as a close personal friend of PC Jarvis after spending ten years in the force together before PC Jarvis was given dispensation to resign from Cleveland Police in November 2016.

PC Wright, who was an Acting Sergeant in Redcar at the time, incorrectly stated his ex-colleague was not facing disciplinary action on her job application form.

He maintained that he was not aware of force rules that the employer reference should have been referred to Cleveland Police’s human resources departments and that PC Jarvis told him she was no longer under investigation.

The misconduct panel chair, Ian Palmer, told the hearing sitting in Cleveland Police’s Middlesbrough HQ that PC Wright’s actions had breached the force’s guidelines of honesty and integrity and orders and instructions.

He said: “We have concluded that on the breach of professional procedures amounts to misconduct and gross misconduct.

“The giving of a reference per se is a breach of standards in terms of orders and instructions.

“The panel were surprised that the officer made no attempt to seek out the rules or the advice of other colleagues in terms of giving the reference.”

He added: “The officer could have taken a number of opportunities clarify the type of reference he was submitting – he could have made clear that he was making a character reference.”

The panel heard that PC Wright was a “brutally honest man with a natural sense of justice” according to his colleagues.

However, PC Wright was dismissed without notice.

Cleveland Police Deputy Chief Constable Simon Nickless said: “The public rightly expects the very highest standards of conduct from our officers and staff.

“Officers are held to a high standard and PC Wright, through his failure to act with honesty and integrity, has not lived up to this standard.”