A Metropolitan Police officer who stalked a woman he met while on duty has been sacked.
PC Jonathan Simon was given a 16-week suspended prison sentence in April but has now been dismissed from the force after his behaviour was classed as gross misconduct.
Sentencing him at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier in the year, district judge Daniel Sternberg said he had brought the Met into disrepute.
The hearing was told how PC Simon began dating his victim after meeting her on duty in May 2021 while attached to the force’s east area command.
When the woman ended the relationship, the former officer continued to text, call and visit her – sometimes when he was on duty.
He then stalked her between October 2021 and July 2022.
This included going to her home and workplace unannounced – on one occasion on the false premise her window was unsecured.
Man found dead in car park after being stabbed in liver may have been homeless
Noel Gallagher fined more than £1,000 for driving offence – but he doesn’t have a licence
London ULEZ: Where the expanded Greater London zone will cover, why Sadiq Khan created it and why it is unpopular with some
He continued to contact her despite her telling him she no longer wished to see him.
Read more from Sky News:
Protester arrested for running in front of race
Police searching boat at centre of Bournemouth probe
Homeless man found dead in car park
A document from the misconduct hearing, signed by assistant commissioner Barbara Gray, reads: “The public could not have confidence in PC Simon after he has shown himself capable of behaving in such a way.
“I know the public would not have confidence in the MPS if we appeared not to take a criminal conviction arising from such behaviour seriously.”
The document said this is “especially true in the context of the grave and current public concern about police officers as perpetrators of violence against women and girls”.
