Ex-Cop Cleared: Selfies at Teen Murder Scene Deemed Not Misconduct

A former Merseyside Police constable, Ryan Connolly, aged 41, has been found not guilty of misconduct in public office. The charges related to taking selfies, including one at the scene where 16-year-old Daniel Gee-Jamieson was fatally stabbed in Belle Vale, Liverpool, in 2018.

The jury was discharged partway through the trial by the Recorder of Manchester, Judge Nicholas Dean KC. The judge concluded that the evidence presented by the prosecution was insufficient to prove serious misconduct, ruling it illegal for the jury to consider the verdicts. Connolly had been deployed to guard the murder scene.

During the investigation, over 50 photos were discovered on Connolly's personal phone, including images of detained individuals and colleagues. Prosecutors argued he wilfully misconducted himself by taking inappropriate photographs without professional need and retaining/sending them. However, evidence of who he sent the pictures to was lacking, except for one sent to a supervising officer.

Connolly, from Huyton, Merseyside, will return to court on Monday to be sentenced for three counts of possession of extreme pornographic images, which he has admitted. Merseyside Police formally dismissed him in 2021, calling his behavior 'deplorable,' and noted other phone content was racist, homophobic, and mocked disabled people, alongside evidence of him socializing with a known criminal.