Police officer took selfies while guarding teen’s murder scene, court told
A former police officer laid down and took a selfie while on duty at the scene of a teenager’s murder, a court heard.
Manchester Crown Court heard that Ryan Connolly, 41, then with Merseyside Police, was on duty at the cordon at the scene of the murder of 16-year-old Daniel Gee-Jamieson in Liverpool’s Belle Vale in 2018 and took photographs of himself in the area.
Opening his trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Peter Wilson told the jury: “Instead of guarding the scene, he lay down and took a selfie. You might wonder what the purpose of that was.”
The jury was shown photos found on Connolly’s phone, which included a selfie of him standing in his police uniform and a selfie of him lying on the grass.
The court ruled that nothing sensitive was seen in the footage, which also included police tape photographs at the scene.
The former police officer of Huyton, Merseyside, denies four charges of misconduct in a public office.
Mr Wilson said Connolly was arrested in February 2020 and a number of photographs were recovered from the sent folder of messaging app WhatsApp when his mobile phones were seized.
He said: “The images are mostly of members of the public who have been openly dealt with by Merseyside Police.
“It also includes photos of other officers on duty and even selfies of the defendant on patrol while guarding a murder scene.”
The 24 photos found on the devices show people detained in police stations, hospitals or mental health centres.
The jury heard some photographs showing members of the public lying in hospital beds, receiving treatment or being handcuffed.
According to the court, one of the images showed a missing child after he was found and taken to the police station, and the other showed two people who appeared to be sleeping in bed.
In a statement read to the court, a woman seen hiding in a cupboard in a photograph said she found it “humiliating and distressing”.
Connolly is also accused of taking photographs containing details of power systems, suspicious images and police incident records.
Five photos of his colleagues were also found on his phone.
Mr Wilson said: “The prosecution says he deliberately committed misconduct by taking indecent photographs which we said were not a professional need. He then retained and sent them.”
He said Connolly’s actions crossed the threshold and amounted to an abuse of public trust in the police.
Mr Wilson said the defendant claimed the images on his personal mobile phone were taken for business purposes, but the court heard the images were not uploaded to police systems.
The hearing is expected to last 4 to 5 days.
