Derry PSNI employee: ‘Sexual misconduct not taken seriously enough’

A PSNI civilian employee from Derry has said she was let down by the force after making allegations of sexual assault against a serving officer.

Sinead McGrotty said she was subjected to inappropriate comments and touching over several years by Det Con Ronan Sharkie.

An internal disciplinary process was carried out over the allegations.

The officer was not suspended at any stage and retained his job.

Det Con Sharkie accepted one allegation of inappropriate touching and was fined £250.

Ms McGrotty’s other allegations were not considered by the disciplinary panel.

He is one of two serving officers to have such allegations upheld against them.

Speaking to William Crawley on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme, Ms McGrotty said the officer’s inappropriate behaviour started shortly after she joined the police as a civilian administrator.

“It was December 2008 that I had started and early 2009 was the first assault that I had,” she said.

Ms McGrotty said on that occasion, Det Con Sharkie slapped her “on the bum”.

“I’d never experienced anything like that in a working environment before in my life and had been in and out of a lot of different public roles outside of the force.

“I was stunned. But I also felt quite vulnerable in that I was in a minority there, as a young Catholic girl.

“If I told anyone, would they believe me?”

According to Ms McGrotty, the behaviour escalated to include inappropriate comments in front of colleagues and grabbing her breasts.

One of the most serious alleged incidents happened when Ms McGrotty was heavily pregnant and at a colleague’s wedding.

“We were at a wedding of a couple that worked with us and he was very drunk. Everyone was very drunk, but I was 30 weeks pregnant at that time, sitting up on a wee stool by myself.

“He came over and he said: ‘I’m going to f**k you when you’ve had that baby’.

“And I just felt totally violated. And I think that was the worst thing that ever happened for me,” she said.

Ms McGrotty said the officer subsequently stopped her in the car park to tell her that – in spite of his drunkenness – he was sincere in what he had said to her at the wedding.

“At that point I was quite suicidal, because I genuinely believed that he was going to rape me and it was a threat to rape,” she said.

Ms McGrotty went on to describe how Det Con Sharkie called at her home after the baby was born and her husband was out at work.

“I heard the knock at the door. I went and I looked out my window and I could see his car below,” she said.

“I hid and I was also trying to keep my baby quiet as well because he was ringing the doorbell and he rang my mobile phone, and I hid in the house until he left.”

She reported the officer in 2012.

There was an investigation, but the Public Prosecution Service decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

But an internal disciplinary process then took place.

Ms McGrotty said there were 11 specific allegations, but only one of these was placed before the disciplinary panel.

A contact avoidance plan was put in place to try to ensure that the officer did not have access to Ms McGrotty.

She also took the PSNI to court over the way the allegations were handled. That court case was settled in 2017.

In 2019, a decision was made by the PSNI to change the terms of the contact avoidance plan, after Det Con Sharkie raised concerns that the plan was inconveniencing him.

Ms McGrotty feared this could lead to her having to work near the officer and she raised this at the highest levels in the PSNI.

She received a letter in August 2021 from PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne.

In that letter, the chief constable apologises for the way Ms McGrotty has been treated.

“I do not believe you have been treated empathetically in relation to this matter over a course of a number of years,” Mr Byrne wrote.

“My prevailing impression of the entire course of events, is that once a wrong course of action was decided upon it became increasingly difficult to unravel.

“Whether intentional or not, I am left with an impression that there was a real concern to assist an officer to overcome a sanction which is viewed as unfair or disproportionate at a certain point.

“The rationale for doing so is not entirely clear to me. What is, however, clear is that you should have been provided with more support and been treated with greater empathy.

“On behalf of the Police Service, I extend a sincere apology for this and the impact that it has had on you personally and professionally.”

The BBC says it contacted the PSNI with a number of questions for the force, for the chief constable and for Det Con Sharkie.

The PSNI said in a statement: “As this matter is currently the subject of legal proceedings it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.”

Ms McGrotty is taking an industrial tribunal against the PSNI.

Det Con Ronan Sharkie remains a serving police officer.

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