An experienced police sergeant made vile remarks about a 15-year-old girl and female officers amid behaviour described as “disgraceful”.
Sergeant David Meller, 45, has now been banned from his force as a panel heard he swore at the teenager and used “very sexualised” language about the two junior female officers.
Sgt Meller’s sacking came little more than a year after he avoided being fired for pinging a junior colleague’s bra, Wales Online reports.
The independent panel heard the 15-year-old girl had been arrested at a care home after allegedly assaulting two staff members. It had been flagged that she was a suicide risk.
Sgt Meller was on duty at at Swansea Central police station on November 26, 2021, with another custody sergeant Mark Yeomans when two female officers brought the teenager in for processing.
As one of the junior female officers approached the custody desk, Sgt Yeomans said: “Alright chicken, alright.” Sgt Meller then said to Sgt Yeomans: “B****r off, she’s my chicken. You speak to the other chicken. She’s my chicken.”
Sgt Meller then asked the female officer: “What crock [of] s*** have you brought in for me?” The teenager was called to the custody desk and was asked what she had been arrested for. She replied: “Punching people.”
Sgt Yeomans, who was standing next to Sgt Meller, said: “What a t***.” As the girl’s handcuffs were removed, Sgt Meller warned her: “Any kicking off and they go back on, alright? Alright, whatever’s happened in the care home I don’t put up with s*** in here.”
He added: “If you hadn’t acted like a t*** you wouldn’t be here but there we go. Whose f***ing fault now… You’re going to be here all night. It’s either going to be difficult because you’re going to be an annoying t*** and f***ing playing up… or we can all be tidy… If you want to act like a f***ing k***, I’ll f***ing treat you like a f***ing k***.”
As Sgt Meller continued to book in the girl, he said: “It is what I said to you earlier. If you act like a t*** then we’ll talk to you like a t***. If you’re going to be tidy so I’m going to be tidy with you all night.”
He continued: “We have got an option here of giving you some really s****y suits. They’re called anti-rip suits.” Sgt Yeomans then referred to the clothing as a “t*** suit”. Sgt Meller laughed and said: “T*** suits, good answer.”
One of the female officers then said the girl had been verbally abusive when arrested. Sgt Meller said the girl’s medication had kicked in and Sgt Yeomans added: “Give her her m*** juice off to sleep innit.”
Before the two female officers left the custody suite, Sgt Meller told them to come back any time but added: “Just don’t bring prisoners.” The female officers laughed and one replied: “Just for a coffee then.” Sgt Meller then said: “F*** it, I’m game.”
After the female officers left Sgt Meller used “very sexualised” language about them which was “totally unacceptable” in a work setting, according to a report from the misconduct hearing. He did not attend the hearing earlier this month but had recently resigned from the force and had admitted the allegations.
The incident happened 15 months after Sgt Meller escaped with a final written warning for putting his arm around a junior female officer and touching her bra in what he claimed was a joke. An allegation that he had unclipped her bra strap was not proven but he was found to have “pinged or twanged” the strap. That incident took place in 2017 and the allegation was made in 2019.
In Sgt Meller’s latest misconduct hearing, the 15-year-old detainee was referred to as “Miss A”. The report read: “Sgt Meller treated Miss A with a lack of respect, he was offensive to her and behaved in an intimidating way towards her by threatening to put her in an anti-rip suit if she was difficult. He referred to this as a t*** suit. His attitude to a young vulnerable person was disgraceful. The public would be shocked if they viewed the CCTV recording of Sgt Meller’s interaction with Miss A.”
The independent misconduct panel also found that Sgt Meller failed to challenge or report Sgt Yeomans for inappropriate and unprofessional language towards the teenager. They added: “The panel does not accept the assertion that Sgt Meller intended to report Sgt Yeomans’ poor behaviour at some time in the future. Sgt Meller’s behaviour that day was even worse than that of Sgt Yeomans and, in the panel’s judgement, he was extremely unlikely to report a fellow officer in such circumstances.”
The report found Sgt Meller’s “appalling” gross misconduct was unacceptable for a supervising officer, adding: “He may well have frightened Miss A and is likely to have made the two female officers feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Sgt Meller was a very poor example to the two junior officers.”
The panel judged that Sgt Meller had “abused his position of power” for 26 minutes amid a backdrop of “national and local concern about misogynistic behaviour by male police officers”. They added that his behaviour “must have undermined” the teenager’s confidence in police and that the only appropriate outcome was to place Sgt Meller on the barred list.
Sgt Yeomans had already been dealt with at an earlier misconduct meeting. He received a final written warning for “unacceptable behaviour”.
South Wales Police said the CCTV footage was not released because the chairman of the panel, Chris McKay, deemed that it could risk identifying the teenager. Asked if the force considers it a mistake that Sgt Meller was allowed to remain an officer after pinging a colleague’s bra, its spokesman said the decision was “a matter for the independent panel”.
The spokesman added that the bra incident was proven as misconduct rather than gross misconduct. The most severe sanction available for misconduct is a final written warning unless there have been multiple incidents or the officer is already on a final warning.