Woman accuses Thames Valley police of harassment
A 24-year-old forensic science graduate says she was wrongly stopped in her car on numerous occasions for suspected driving offences after breaking up with a police officer.
Katie Bowman has won the backing of her MP Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, who has written to the chief constable of Thames Valley police to complain about the way she has been treated.
Ms Bowman, from High Wycombe, is worried that police intelligence reports will be used against her when she applies for jobs and is calling for them to be deleted.
She told the BBC Today programme that her problems started when she visited a police station in High Wycombe as an 18-year-old and talked to an officer who later became her boyfriend.
“Basically my car got vandalised, so I went into a police station to write a statement and he took the statement and then later that night he took my number off the statement paper and then texted me off his personal number and invited me out for a ride along with him. We started texting …. and then became together.”
‘Make your life hell’
Ms Bowman told Today she discovered the officer, named by the Daily Mail as PC Alexander Ash, already had a girlfriend. She ended the relationship and made a formal complaint about how he obtained her phone number.
“I then decided that what he’d done was wrong, so I told the PSD department (professional standards department). So he pulled me over one day and said, ‘I can make your life hell for doing this’.”
PC Ash told the Daily Mail he had never had a relationship with Ms Bowman.
During the next two years, Ms Bowman was stopped in her car on many occasions and the vehicle was seized six times, but she was never convicted of a crime.
“I got a fixed penalty notice for disorder for wasting police time that I challenged and I won,” she said. “I got a fixed penalty notice for not having my seatbelt on that I challenged and won. I got taken to court twice for careless driving. Both times I was acquitted.”
Lost her job
Half of the 40 police reports about her have been removed after her father contested them, but Ms Bowman claims she lost her job as a student paramedic after a criminal records check and is worried her future employment prospects will be adversely affected unless all of the files are deleted.
Mr Grieve, Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, has contacted the chief constable of Thames Valley police, Sara Thornton, saying Ms Bowman “is a person of good character. .. adversely affected by the numerous derogatory comments made about her by police”.
He said in a statement that Ms Bowman had contacted him “concerning police intelligence reports made against her which are adversely impacting on her life and her ability to pursue her career”.
He added: “While I have not had an opportunity of hearing a police explanation or justification for their actions, I am concerned that a person of apparent good character with no previous convictions should be treated in this way and have raised my concerns with the chief constable, particularly as Katie Bowman has raised serious allegations that the intelligence reports may arise from police misconduct towards her.”
Disciplinary proceedings
A Thames Valley police statement said: “The need to retain the intelligence reports relating to Ms Bowman was reviewed in 2012 (following which a number were removed) and again in 2013 following further requests made on behalf of Ms Bowman.
“Ms Bowman has made a number of complaints to Thames Valley police, some of which were unsubstantiated and some resulted in disciplinary proceedings against officers.
“In one case Ms Bowman made a complaint against a number of officers which she subsequently withdrew. Despite the fact she withdrew her complaint, Thames Valley Police continued with disciplinary proceedings against the officers.
“The complaints made specifically about harassment were unsubstantiated and Ms Bowman’s appeal to the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) was not upheld.”
Appeal
An IPCC spokeswoman said Ms Bowman appealed to it in 2009 about the disciplinary action taken against a Thames Valley police officer who had issued her with a caution in 2007.
This caution was removed in 2009, and the IPCC did not uphold her appeal.
The IPCC spokeswoman added: “As part of this appeal, the IPCC also reviewed the background papers in relation to a number of Miss Bowman’s specific complaints to TVP (Thames Valley police) of harassment by officers and was satisfied with the force’s investigation into the complaints.”