A police officer who was twerking is fired for groping his colleagues at a party

A policewoman who groped two colleagues at a drunken party has been fired.

PC Pamela Pritchard, 29, stuck her hand in a colleague’s groin twice and then sat on his knee and kissed him, after drinking at a farewell party at Caernarfon Rugby Club, Gwynedd, in March 2024.

The North Wales police officer also grabbed a female colleague’s breasts after “twerking” on the dance floor, and then attempted to kiss a senior female colleague.

The panel at a misconduct hearing in Colwyn Bay, Conwy, concluded that all allegations against him were proven and that he had breached the force’s standards of conduct.

PC Pritchard, who joined North Wales Police as a trainee in 2023, admitted his drunken behavior was inappropriate but denied it was serious misconduct.

She previously told the hearing she was “mortified” to see CCTV footage of herself and remembered little of what happened at the party on March 29, 2024.

The four-day hearing was told PC Pritchard was one of a large number of police officers who attended his colleague’s farewell party.

They included PC Pritchard and another officer, identified at the hearing as “Police Constable B”.

PC B told Monday’s hearing that he and another colleague were in the bar with PC Pritchard when “out of nowhere, PC Pritchard grabbed me below the belt and put his hand on my genitals outside my clothing.”

He said: “In no way was it appropriate – I felt a bit humiliated at the time.”

He added that she did the same thing again later, when a group of officers came out to the smoking area.

“He grabbed my genitals outside my clothes and I clearly remember squeezing them.”

At approximately 22:00 BST, PC Pritchard again approached PC B and sat on his knee.

“I remember he put his hand around my neck and kissed me on the lips,” she said.

“It wasn’t appropriate, it was in public. His behavior was becoming more and more unacceptable.”

The hearing was broadcast on the rugby club’s CCTV which showed PC Pritchard “twerking” on the dance floor in a series of suggestive dance moves.

A female police officer, identified at the hearing only as “Police Officer A”, said: “Officer Pritchard came up behind me, put both arms around my neck, then put them under my armpits, grabbed my breasts and squeezed them.”

PC Pritchard apologized to PC A when he gave evidence at the hearing earlier this week.

She said: “My behavior that night was inappropriate, I have never acted like that before.

“I am absolutely mortified by what happened. I don’t recognize the person I see on CCTV. All I can do is apologise.”

She broke down in tears as she said: “I feel like I’ve let the police down, I’ve let myself down and I’ve let my family down.”

She said she had had “panic and nightmares” and felt like “people thought I was a sexual predator.”

The panel’s chairman, Deputy Chief Constable Chris Allsop, said on Thursday that “all allegations against PC Pritchard have been proven”.

“Overall, the panel considers the rule violations to be of medium to high severity, which could justify dismissal as serious misconduct,” he said.

Solicitor Fiona Clancy, representing PC Pritchard, had argued that he should be allowed to keep his job in the police.

“She accepts that her behavior was unacceptable. “This was a short-lived, short-lived episode and there is no risk of it happening again.

“PC Pritchard has been doing voluntary work whilst awaiting this hearing and has kept her fitness levels high – there is a genuine motivation to continue serving the community.”

North Wales Police deputy chief constable Nigel Harrison said PC Pritchard’s behavior “fell well below the standard we expect from our police officers”.

“There is no problem with officers when they are off duty relaxing and having fun, but their behavior that night was simply not acceptable by anyone’s standards,” he said.

“She has been rightly dismissed, ending her very short career with us and preventing her from serving in any other UK force.”