Met Police begins new legal battle to sack high-flying officer who was reinstated after tribunal ruled she was unfairly dismissed for child porn offence
The Metropolitan Police has today begun a new legal battle to sack a high-flying officer who was reinstated after a tribunal ruled she was unfairly dismissed over a child porn offence.
Superintendent Novlett Robyn Williams successfully appealed against the decision to fire her earlier this year and was brought back as a police officer.
But the force is now applying for a judicial review, saying they believe the panel that overturned her sacking failed to properly assess the seriousness of her conviction.
The highly decorated officer, who was commended for her work after the Grenfell Tower disaster, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for possession of an indecent image in November 2019.
She was dismissed from the Met with immediate effect after a special disciplinary hearing in March 2020 found her conviction amounted to 'gross misconduct'.
Superintendent Novlett Robyn Williams (pictured in 2016) was unfairly dismissed for possessing child abuse images, a tribunal ruled
The officer (pictured in February this year) was sacked and put on the sex offenders register in 2019 after being convicted of possessing child pornography
However, in June, the Police Appeals Tribunal found that she should not have been sacked, and instead should have received a final written warning.
Then today, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force is seeking judicial reviews of two cases where sackings were overturned by the PAT, but refused to release details of the second.
He said: 'In both cases the Met believes there was a failure by the PAT to make a proper assessment of the seriousness of the convictions.
'The Met also finds the duty to reinstate, as a result of the decisions of the PAT, is also in potential conflict with vetting processes.
'In challenging the legal principles leading to the PAT's decisions, the Met is seeking to ensure a lawful and consistent approach to misconduct hearings in the future, bearing in mind there is a serious issue about how disciplinary panels and PAT's approach criminal convictions.
'These PAT rulings currently leave a lack of clarity for disciplinary panels in determining the outcome of such conduct cases and this has an associated impact on public confidence.'
Both Ms Williams and the individual involved in the second case have been reinstated as police officers while legal proceedings continue.
During Ms Williams' trial at the Old Bailey, jurors heard how she received a child abuse video via WhatsApp from her older sister Jennifer Hodge, 57, so that the officer could investigate the footage.
During Ms Williams' trial at the Old Bailey, jurors heard how she received a child abuse video via WhatsApp from her older sister Jennifer Hodge , 57, so that the officer could investigate the footage
But she failed to report the clip, and while the court accepted she had not viewed the video the jury was not convinced she was unaware of it being on her phone.
Ms Williams, who was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for distinguished service in 2003, had her appeal against her conviction for having a child abuse video on her phone refused by the Court of Appeal in February.