A POLICE officer provided a glowing reference for a colleague under investigation for concocting bogus child sex claims to enable her to work with "very vulnerable" youngsters, a misconduct hearing was told.

PC Stephen Wright, of Cleveland Police, lied about the disciplinary record of PC Kelly Jarvis and went against police rules to supply a reference after she was interviewed for a job as a project worker with Reach Out Care, which provides accommodation and support to vulnerable people.

PC Jarvis was under investigation at the time for a campaign of harassment against a former friend, Fiona Miller, in which she had falsely accused her of having sex with a 14-year-old boy and reported her to the NSPCC for neglecting her young child.

She also posed as someone else to send texts to Ms Miller falsely telling her that her partner was cheating on her, and subjected her to ongoing harassment on social media as well as providing malicious referrals to the NSPCC.

The claims against PC Jarvis had been upheld by the force's Professional Standards Department.

However, instead of being subjected to disciplinary action, she was given dispensation to resign from the force in November.

Now PC Wright, who described himself as a close and personal friend and colleague, who had known PC Jarvis for ten years, is facing a misconduct hearing himself for incorrectly declaring on the reference form for the new job that she was not subject to any disciplinary proceedings.

After his glowing reference, PC Jarvis got the job and underwent full training - but the hearing was told that the week before she started one of her new colleagues "googled" her name and found the media stories about her. She was dismissed from her new job.

Stephen Morley, acting for Cleveland Police, said PC Wright's conduct had breached standards of professional conduct and had "acted dishonestly".

PC Wright should not have provided an employer reference as it should have been referred to the force's human resources department, it is alleged. He denies the allegations, saying he was not aware of this rule, he was providing a character rather than an employer reference, and that PC Jarvis had him she was no longer being investigated.

Mr Morley said: "Reach Out Care gave Kelly Jarvis the job. They wouldn't have offered her the job had they known the truth.

“It is our case against PC Wright that he knowingly provided untruthful answers to both those questions.”

Susan Andrews, compliance manager for Reach Out Care, said PC Jarvis had been selected for interview out of more than 50 candidates, and had impressed them. When she found out about the misconduct investigation, after a colleague "googled" PC Jarvis, she said: "I spoke to Kelly and she said she had been exonerated of any blame and had letters at home to show this.

"I never saw those letters."

  • The hearing continues.