A Freemason police officer was sacked for leaking the name of a woman who reported her own family for a party she thought was breaking covid rules.
Officers had attended the house after the New Year’s Eve 2020 tip. But nothing untoward was found and no action taken against the couple who were known as Mr and Mrs A at a police misconduct hearing.
North Wales PC Peter Ashton, 48, was a customer at Mr A’s garage, and they had both been Freemasons together.
In February last year PC Ashton went to Rhyl police station and asked Rachel Davies, a counter assistant, to search a police computer for Covid-related reports on New Year’s Eve in the Denbighshire coastal area.
He later allegedly passed the information on to a couple – revealing that it was their own niece who had reported them.
The misconduct panel said in a newly published decision: ‘In addition, it appears that they [Mr A and PC Ashton] had both been Freemasons for a period of time. There is an email from 2016 which refers to PC Ashton’s Freemason initiation ceremony.’
The niece, named as Jane during the hearing, said she had ‘lost all trust in the police’ after her name was revealed to her relatives.
