Merseyside police officer Ryan Connolly who took selfies while guarding scene of teenager’s death cleared of misconduct at Manchester Crown Court
A former police officer who took a selfie at the scene of a teenager’s death has been cleared of misconduct in public office by a judge.
Ryan Connolly, 41, was found not guilty of four charges after Manchester Recorder Judge Nicholas Dean KC discharged the jury midway through his trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Judge Dean ruled that the prosecution’s evidence was insufficient to prove Mr Connolly’s misconduct and that it was legally unacceptable for the jury to consider the verdicts.
The not guilty verdicts were officially recorded on Friday, the fifth day of the hearings.
He told the court: “My conclusion is that the Crown cannot establish serious misconduct here, the evidence cannot show serious misconduct, so the jury cannot conclude that Mr Connolly is guilty of misconduct in a public office.”
Prosecutors have until Monday to consider whether to appeal the decision.
Jurors had heard that Connolly, a constable with Merseyside Police, took selfies, including one lying on the grass, while deployed to maintain a cordon following the murder of 16-year-old Daniel Gee-Jamieson in Belle Vale, Liverpool, in 2018.
The court heard more than 50 photographs were found in the WhatsApp sent folder on Connolly’s personal phone when he was arrested in February 2020, including images of vulnerable people detained in hospitals, as well as images of power systems and colleagues.
Opening the trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Peter Wilson said: “The prosecution says he deliberately committed misconduct by taking indecent photographs which we said were not a professional need. He then hid them and sent them.”
But the court heard there was no evidence of who Connolly sent the pictures to, apart from a photo sent to a supervising officer.
No message accompanying the images was received from the phone.
The jury was told the defendant claimed the footage was taken for business purposes, but the court heard it was not uploaded to police systems.
At Friday’s hearing, one of the jurors wrote in a note asking the court to explain why the defendant took the photos, adding: “What was he getting out of this?”
Judge Dean told jurors that misconduct in a public office is one of the few remaining common law crimes, is difficult to define and is usually a form of corruption.
He gave the example that sometimes police officers are prosecuted for providing information about police investigations to criminals in exchange for money; but no such thing was suggested in Connolly’s case.
But Connolly, of Huyton, Merseyside, will appear at the same court on Monday to be sentenced to three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images, which he has previously admitted.
He was formally sacked in 2021 by Merseyside Police, who described his behavior as “deplorable”.
Other images found on his phone were of racist, homophobic and mocking disabled people, a misconduct hearing was told, and messages showed him socializing with a known criminal.
