A police force has apologised to two women for the way it handled reports of abusive behaviour by superior officer.
Gwent Police settled with two former female officers who were abused by a senior male colleague.
In April 2019, a misconduct panel found PC Clarke Joslyn was domineering, controlling and physically abusive to women.
Joslyn, who has since left the force, was in a position where he trained new officers. Centre for Women’s Justice say he relied on his more senior position to groom both women into relationships with him.
In October 2019, WalesOnline interviewed both women, who are only known by their anonymised names "Jodie" and "Sarah ", as part of an investigation that showed serious failings in how Gwent Police handled abuse within their ranks.
What did PC Joslyn do?
In May 2011, Jodie was just 28 when she began her relationship with the much older PC Joslyn. The pair had met while she was a new recruit and he was delivering training.
It was not unusual for Joslyn to have relationships with younger women. His misconduct hearing found there was “something of a pattern, that many of those with whom he formed such relationships were some years younger than him”.
“I was a young woman at the start of my career,” Jodie recalled. "He was 10 years older. He had been in the job a long time as well.”
She said it wasn’t long before his behaviour become controlling.
She said this included things like:
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August 2011- He ordered Jodie to not to answer her phone to avoid being deployed to assist in policing of the London riots.
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October 2011 - When Jodie called a male colleague he threatened her, saying that if she humiliated him he would “do her legs” or “end her”.
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January 2012 - Joslyn grabbed Jodie around the throat and “applied pressure”.
The panel at Joslyn’s disciplinary hearing found all these three allegations were proven.
When Jodie, who the hearing described as “a compelling witness”, decided to end the relationship the hearing heard that he began a relentless stalking campaign against her.
The panel heard that he sent sinister biblical passages such as “be sure your sins will find you out” and used the police radio to track her movements when she was at work.
Following what she described as relentless stalking, Jodie could no longer cope. It culminated when she was due to attend public order and riot training. Joslyn was the trainer on the course.
She reported Joslyn’s behaviour to her superiors. She told the misconduct hearing that Joslyn had often told her that if she reported it, no one would believe her because she was on probation. However once she had passed her initial period on the job, she found the courage to come forward.
She told WalesOnline: “Being a police officer and now out of my probation I was confident that Gwent Police would support me and protect me if they were aware of the situation. On returning to the station I reported everything to my sergeants. They informed an inspector who said he would deal with the matters.
“I sat down with him and reiterated the events of the past few months in detail which appeared to shock the Inspector. I stated repeatedly that I wanted Clarke to leave me alone and allow me to do my job and I wanted to feel safe in work and at home.”
In response to this Jodie was told not to continue the training.
This is where Jodie said Gwent Police failed to fulfil its responsibilities to protect her.
She said she was assured that Joslyn had been issued with a written harassment order. She believed that if he broke this he would be arrested.
However it is not clear today what the official status of that warning was.
Joslyn was warned to stay away from her by his superior officer - but this man was a friend who he regularly socialised with.
“I had seen personal cards from that officer at Clarke’s house and knew that they socialised together outside work,” Jodie said.
“I was devastated as I believed that the only thing to come from that would be humiliation for me as they were probably having a very informal chat and a joke at my expense. I expressed my concerns but was told that he would have been told in a professional capacity and not to worry further.
“I trusted that my employer would be in a position to protect me from bullying, harassment and intimidation in order that I could carry out my duties in a safe environment.”
After he had been given the harassment warning, Joslyn breached it immediately by email.
In that email, seen by WalesOnline, Joslyn starts by saying: “I’ve been told not to contact you at all and got served with a harassment order warning last week. Please don’t consider this harassment, I am having a bad enough time as it is.”
When WalesOnline contacted Joslyn, his response was inconsistent but he claimed he had not treated the order as serious because it was given to him by a friend.
He told WalesOnline: “I struggled to differentiate as to whether he was speaking to me as a mate or giving advice as a boss.
“I would have to agree with them that if it had been a more independent inspector I would have known it was more formal and it wouldn’t have happened [breaching the order]."
However he also commented: “[The reason] I was taken to a misconduct meeting, was that I breached an order in contacting her so I fully accepted that.”
Jodie reported him breaking the warning and was referred to the force’s professional standards department. After handing over the evidence she received no further contact from the force.
According to Jodie, she couldn’t believe that he was not arrested.
“If somebody I was working with had breached the harassment order I would have arrested them straight away,” she said. “You are arresting them mainly to protect the victim and to prevent any further cases of harassment. It’s mainly to stop it escalating.
“You need to protect that victim because the perpetrator doesn't obviously care about the order.
“You know in this job how many women suffer at the hands of ex-partners.
“Any domestic that I would go to at that time you had to arrest the offender whether the victim wanted it or not. That was the absolute minimum you would do.”
Jodie remained in the force but said Joslyn’s abuse continued to ruin her life.
“As far as I am concerned this absolutely destroyed my career,” she said. “Not only because I felt that there wasn’t any point applying for a promotion because I felt my collar number was marked. It made me lose my passion to go up the ranks in an organisation that I know behaved like that.
“The way they protected him, I’ve got more morals than to go up in this organisation. Having too many morals shouldn't stop you wanting to go up in police.
“In school I was a straight A-star student. I have a degree. I was hoping to have a real career.
“What is most frustrating is that people like him give police a bad name.”
Despite everything Jodie had reported, Gwent Police allowed PC Joslyn to remain in his post.
He continued to have access to young female officers through his role as a trainer.
Speaking at Joslyn’s disciplinary (which PC Joslyn did not attend ), his friend PC Richard Gunter told the panel that he liked to have sexual intercourse with lots of women. He said: “I knew he was appealing to young female police officers”.
One of these was 24-year-old Sarah, a new recruit who was still on probation.
“He was in a position of authority,” she told WalesOnline.
“He worked at the training school and he trained people for public order scenarios like raids and football matches. He was exposed to very new police officers. Within my first couple of weeks of joining the police he was one of our trainers. In my opinion he used that teaching authority to target young women who had just joined the police.
“That is how I first met him. At the training he took me aside from everybody else and took the piss out of me because he said I couldn’t march. At the time I thought nothing of it. I’m quite a piss-taking kind of person myself.
“Everyone knew him, and he would always tell you how connected he was in the force.”
In September 2012 the pair began a two-year relationship, which quickly turned violent.
She told Joslyn’s misconduct hearing he had:
- Pinned her against a wall whilst holding a knife after an argument about food
- Pinned her to his bed and pushed her up it when she tried to leave his house. She only escaped after she spat in his face.
The panel said it found these allegations were proven.
Speaking about the night she had to escape from his house she said: “I can’t remember where we had been but I decided that night that I had had enough and I tried to get out of the house and he would not let me out.
“He pinned me to his bed with my face down and would not let me move.
“In the end I spat in his face and I hate spitting but I had to do it to get him off me. That way I could run. It was fight-or-flight.
“We were face to face and he was a very big bloke. He grabbed me and threw me across his bed.
“He came over because he’s realised what he done. I ran out of the house and no taxis would pick me up because I was crying.”
She said he kept phoning her begging her not to leave him.
“I ended up going back that night because I couldn’t get home,” she said.
“I slept on the sofa and half way through the night I woke up to him carrying me up from the sofa to his bed.
“I was so exhausted from the fight earlier I just didn’t have the energy to resist.
“We had to meet up with his parents and sister the next day I had to pretend like nothing had happened - it was awful.”
Unsurprisingly this took its toll on Sarah. She had to face Clarke both at home and work. He told her that if she told anyone, no one at the force would believe because he had so many friends in Gwent Police.
“I had to make the decision then whether it was my career or the truth. I was 24 at this point. I took a couple of days to make a decision about what I was going to do and eventually I had a breakdown at work. I approached my sergeant and told her what happened. I told her everything and she took me to an inspector.
Sarah reported Joslyn.
“After I reported it it was investigated by people who knew him,” said Sarah.
“They had worked with him in the same offices for years and years.
“They were personal friends and colleagues of him. He had been in the force for over 20 years at this point and he knew that people there had his back. Afterwards the CPS would not charge him.”
As in the case of Jodie, Sarah said normal procedures were not followed.
“He was never arrested.” she said. “He was voluntary interviewed weeks and weeks after that date so he had plenty of time.
“If a member of the public had come to us with the things that he had done to me he would have been arrested straight away.”
Having spoken out about Clarke’s behaviour only to have the claims dismissed left Sarah devastated.
She said: “I had massively opened up myself there. This is the reason why people can’t say things because of people like Clarke who say ‘if you tell people what I’m like no one is going to believe you and it will be the end of your career’.”
“The thing is when it’s killing you, and I mean slowly killing you, you have to do something about it. I have poured my heart out, expressed worst experiences of my life and nothing happened.”
The two cases form part of a dossier of evidence compiled by Centre for Women’s Justice in a national police super-complaint on police perpetrated abuse, currently under investigation, which has led to over 155 women coming forward who have suffered similar experiences.
Speaking after the apology and settlement Jodie said: “It took all of my strength and courage for me to report these crimes back in 2012. When I wasn’t taken seriously, my confidence and trust were shattered beyond repair. I was left not only feeling worthless but also that my integrity was being questioned.
"My aim all the way through this was to bring a domestic violence perpetrator to justice and prevent anybody else going through what I did. Sadly this was not the case due to the negligence of Gwent Police and its boys club culture."
Sarah added: “When I came forward to report Clarke Joslyn’s illegal behaviour - doing exactly what I had always been, as a police officer, trained to do - I wasn’t just denied support; I lost everything. My reputation, my health, and ultimately my career in the police. I entered Gwent Police a bubbly young woman who was excited about her job and her future. When I left just five years later, I was completely broken. I have even lost my confidence in the police as a public service.”
The hearing into Joslyn's behaviour also addressed the language that PC Joslyn was alleged to have used.
In a string of social media messages in September 2012 he was found to have:
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Referred to a woman in a wheelchair as a “spastic”.
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Used the word “mong”, “spaz” and “rem”.
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Referred to a person being a “dwarf” and looking “a bit downs”.
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Used the phrase “pikkaninies” (sic) and “little black child servant”.
One witness to the hearing described an incident when they were at the cinema and a person with Down's syndrome came on the screen and Joslyn started laughing. The witness said she had never been so embarrassed and she “couldn’t believe he was a police officer”.
During the hearing Joslyn tried to defend his use of language as "tame in comparison to some jokes made by comedians as Frankie Boyle and Ricky Gervais” and provided the hearing with a Frankie Boyle script and a copy of the Inbetweeners script.
Jodie and Sarah were represented by Kate Ellis and Harriet Wistrich from Centre for Women’s Justice.
Statement from Gwent Police
In a statement deputy chief constable Amanda Blakeman from Gwent Police said: “I met with the two women involved in this case to hear their experiences first-hand and to apologise to them on behalf of Gwent Police. I am extremely sorry that at a time when they felt most in need of our support that we let them down.
“Since I took up my role with the force nearly two years ago, I have worked hard with the chief constable and other senior leaders to make a difference to the culture of Gwent Police, not only on this issue but on all discriminatory practices. This work will continue to ensure Gwent Police is a safe and professional workplace for everyone.
“We have listened, reflected and taken the actions needed to get this right in future. This is to make sure that if anyone within the force, or a member of the public, raises any concerns about the conduct of officers or staff that they can be confident of being heard and having the issues they raise investigated thoroughly. In the current climate this is critical to maintaining confidence in our services.
“We take any allegations of this nature very seriously and they will be thoroughly investigated, and action taken. We will also work with individuals raising concerns to make sure they have the support they want and need.
“Public expectations around our standards of behaviour are quite rightly very high. There is no place in our force for inappropriate workplace behaviour or the abuse of an individual’s position to exploit others. We expect everyone within Gwent Police to maintain high standards of professional behaviour – the vast majority of our employees work tirelessly to serve our communities with professionalism, honesty and integrity.
“We are committed to identifying and taking action against those individuals who breach these standards. The public must have the utmost confidence in the integrity of our officers, and we are very clear that anyone who undermines the public’s trust will have no future in this force.”
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