A Thames Valley Police inspector has been demoted after a misconduct hearing heard he was messaging juniors in the force on Grindr.

The inspector, who was granted anonymity for the duration of the misconduct hearing, along with the officers involved and all witnesses, claimed he was suffering with a 'sex addiction' at the time of the messages.

A panel heard evidence at Kidlington Police Headquarters over three days from May 5 to May 7, found the inspector guilty of gross misconduct.

He admitted to messaging two subordinate officers, in November 2022 and June 2023, but claimed he was not aware they were serving police officers, despite having met them on the job.

Thames Valley Police HQThames Valley Police HQ (Image: Contributed)

One of the subordinate officers was a trainee police officer when the first messages on Grindr were sent, and the inspector had previously met the other when he was a member of a recruit selection panel in April 2019, meaning there was a serious disparity in rank.

In August 2022, when he was first investigated by the Counter Corruption Unit, the inspector held the rank of temporary chief inspector.

Grindr is the world’s largest, location-based social networking and dating app for gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

The panel heard the inspector's account used a picture of himself as a profile picture, but had an emoji instead of a name.

Messages he sent to the subordinate officers included questions like 'how are you?', a picture of himself which disappeared within 10 second of being viewed, and on one occasion a reply to the junior officer which read 'I’m good mate, chilling out. I’m looking for some fun this time tomorrow if I’m honest lol'.

File image of thumb hovering over WhatsApp icon on screen(Image: Yui Mok / PA)

It was heard that Grindr does not allow users to search for another person using their name or profile name and work son a proximity location basis, and the inspector had no knowledge the other officers used the app.

Evidence from the hearing said: "Inspector A stated that at the time of sending the messages, he was routinely using the dating site Grindr, and he was sending large numbers of generic messages to other users of the site.

"He further stated that at the time he was suffering from a sex addiction and this opened the risk that he was accidentally contacting subordinate and junior officers."

The inspector accepted that he had been reckless and the conduct amounted to misconduct, but denied that he knew the people he contacted were junior officers and that his conduct was intentional, and therefore claimed it did not amount to gross misconduct.

He expressed remorse for his behaviour and was 'significantly embarrassed' by it, according to the panel.

However, the panel ruled that the inspector had recognised the subordinate officers prior to messaging them and his conduct amounted to gross misconduct.

The sanction imposed was the reduction in rank from inspector to police constable, as it considered he 'deserved another chance to prove he was an asset to the police service and the communities it serves".