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A misconduct hearing against three senior Gwent Police officers will be held in private after they and their force successfully applied to have the public and the media banned from attending.

Chief Superintendent Mark Warrender, who oversaw policing for Caerphilly, and Chief Superintendent Marc Budden, who was the force’s temporary assistant chief constable, were both suspended in 2019.

It followed an incident in Cardiff on June 28 that year at the retirement party of former Gwent Police Chief Constable Julian Williams.

An allegation of sexual assault was made against Mr Warrender, while Mr Budden was suspended over an allegation of misconduct in a public office. The CPS last year decided the pair would not face criminal charges.

However the two will now face allegations of gross misconduct at a police hearing on April 7, alongside a third senior officer – Chief Inspector Paul Staniforth, who has not been suspended.

Why is it being held in private?

The “default” position for hearings is that they are held in public. Gwent Police and the three officers jointly applied for the hearing to be held in private for three main reasons.

According to a notice published on the force’s website these were:

• by reason of the law relating to anonymity of complainants following allegations of a sexual offence.
• in furtherance of the public interest in encouraging reporting of alleged wrongdoing.
• to protect the Article 8 rights [of private and family life] of witnesses at the hearing and their families, including those of the officers concerned.

Despite representations from Caerphilly Observer, WalesOnline and the BBC, John Bassett, the chair of the hearing, decided it should be in held in private

In his written decision, of which a redacted version was sent to us and is published below, Mr Bassett agreed with the arguments put forward by the force and the three officers.

The decision to hold the hearing in private means the only record of its outcome could be just a brief summary with the result and the officers’ names.

Why it should be held in public

In our submission to Mr Bassett we argued that journalists are well-versed in what can and cannot be reported in terms of revealing the identity of a victim of a sexual offence.

We also argued that keeping the hearing private ran the risk of undermining public confidence in the police disciplinary process as there could be a perception of ‘trying to hide things’.

Keeping such hearings open to public scrutiny would encourage the reporting of alleged wrongdoing while making them private could discourage people from coming forward with concerns in the future.

With regards to the citation of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act (right to a private and family life), we put forward an argument where such a right needed to be balanced against others – such as the media’s right to freedom of expressions.

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, there are also situations when public authorities can interfere with a person’s right to respect for their privacy.

Two of the cited situations are the protection of public safety and to protect the rights and freedoms of other people.

We argued that hearing the evidence for allegations faced by three senior police officers fell within these scenarios.

There is currently a public trust issue with policing in this country following high profile cases such as the killing of Sarah Everard and the ‘Wayne Couzens WhatsApp Group’. This has had an impact on public safety as it undermines confidence in the police.

It is firmly in the public interest for any alleged wrongdoing by serving senior officers to be heard in the open so that the public can continue to have confidence that allegations are dealt with correctly and not ‘hushed up’.

No criminal charges from the CPS

In May last year the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed the pair would not face criminal charges after an investigation by the Independent Office of Police Conduct and Avon and Somerset Police.

Avon and Somerset Police carried out an investigation on behalf of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which was completed in July 2019.

In May last year, an IOPC spokesperson confirmed disciplinary proceedings could still go ahead against the officers.

At the time the CPS said: “Following a referral of evidence by the IOPC regarding the alleged conduct on two senior police officers, the CPS has decided that our legal test is not met to charge them with any offence.

“We considered the offence of sexual assault against one officer, and the offences of misconduct in public office and the improper exercise of police powers against the second officer.

“The role of the CPS is to make fair and independent decisions based on the available evidence and the complainant has the right to seek a review of our decision under the CPS’s Victim’s Right to Review scheme.”

Mr Budden joined the police in 1993, and was in charge of neighbourhood policing, partnerships and uniform operations at Gwent Police before rising to temporary assistant chief constable.

Mr Warrender joined Gwent Police in 1996 and was the divisional commander for the force’s west policing area, which covers Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Torfaen.