A detective has admitted accessing sensitive information about a woman and her son after he came across her name during a murder investigation.

Detective Constable Richard Crallan first became aware of the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when he was at a friend’s New Year’s Eve party.

A disciplinary hearing was told how the Cleveland Police officer then stumbled across her name during a legitimate investigation.

However, the experienced officer then proceeded to check out her history and that of her son without any legal reason, the independent disciplinary tribunal heard.

Stephen Morley, representing Cleveland Police, told the panel that the officer had referred himself to the force’s Directorate of Standards and Ethics (DSE) after he made separate searches a year later when he was contacted by his friend, a Durham Constabulary officer.

He said: “He is an experienced officer. He has been a police officer for 18 years.

“At the time he was working in the murder investigation team at the force. He was an officer trusted with serious cases and he happened to be a good friend with an officer from another force.”

Mr Morley said DC Crallan was invited to the party organised by the Durham officer, Detective Constable Paul Cooper, where he met the woman and then in January 2020, he saw her name during a murder investigation and checked to see if it was the same person.

A year later, the officer then carried out a check on force’s records on her and her son’s name in March 2021 and read a number of confidential intelligence reports including ones relating to complaints she had made against colleagues.

In September of that year, his friend had reported two incidents to Cleveland Police after the woman turned up at his house and started shouting abuse.

And as a result, DC Crallan accessed the force’s computer network to check details of the investigation at the behest of his friend after the woman had made a formal complaint to Durham Constabulary about DC Cooper.

Mr Morley said DC Crallan should have seen a ‘red flag’ as soon as his friend mentioned the woman had reported him to his force’s professional standards.

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DC Crallan accepts he breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour for police officers in regard to confidentiality, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct.

However, he denied breaching the standards of honesty and integrity which was accepted by the legal representative of Cleveland Police who offered no evidence in respect of those allegations.

Sarah Barlow, representing DC Crallan, said her client had accepted the force’s case that there was no policing reason to access the woman's private data.

The hearing continues.