A detective who investigated a woman accused of assaulting her child has been sacked after allegedly having a sexual relationship with the suspect.

Detective Constable Darren Stedman, who worked with the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command, was sacked from the force on Thursday (January 25) after a misconduct hearing.

The panel heard that DC Stedman allegedly had a sexual relationship with a woman in 2009 who was a suspect in a domestic abuse case.

The woman had been investigated by DC Stedman in 2008 for assault on her child.

DC Stedman was also accused of accessing crime reports about the woman on two occasions in order to provide information to her that he was not authorised to do.

On top of that, he allegedly took and kept a “scenes of the crime” album and edited confidential ABE interviews of three victims at his home address without permission.

After considering the evidence, the chair of the misconduct panel found the case of gross misconduct proven and found he had breached the standards of professional behaviour.

The breach was found in respect of “confidentiality”, “duties and responsibilities”, and “discreditable conduct”, a spokesman for Metropolitan Police said.

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