Two police officers have spoken of their “enormous regret” at failing to report a colleague accused of supplying drugs sooner. PC Lauren Rickwood and PC Ben Whitby told an Avon & Somerset police misconduct hearing that they were wrong to wait weeks before raising the alarm about Weston-super-Mare plain-clothes officer PC Jonathan Biggins.
Both were on separate secondments to his unit, which tackled drugs in the town, in 2020 when they say the officer seized and then gave back Class A substances to users who he had stopped-and-searched in the street in exchange for information about their dealers. PC Biggins, who has since resigned from the force, is accused of breaching the standards of professional behaviour for police officers, amounting to gross misconduct. He denies the allegations.
PC Rickwood, who had been an officer less than a year, was on her first patrol with the team in May 2020 when they stopped a known drug user in Baker Street. She told the panel on day two of the hearing at constabulary headquarters in Portishead on Wednesday, May 17, that although she did not see the drugs directly, PC Biggins asked where he had got them from and the man described three men who sold him Class A drugs near the ferris wheel minutes earlier and showed a text message from them.
Read more: Avon and Somerset Police officer allegedly 'gave drugs back to users' for dealers' details
PC Rickwood said the man, who was “pale, clammy and shaking” – signs of drug withdrawal – said: “I’ve told you what you want to know, can I have them back?”. She said PC Biggins then passed something back to him with a closed hand and he left quickly.
The information turned out to be accurate and the three men were arrested. PC Rickwood told the panel: “PC Biggins started telling me that it was his choice to do what he had done and that it’s not best practice, it’s not what I should be doing, but it was better to go after the dealer than the users.”
He told her that they had to “think about the bigger picture” and that she should not mention in her notes that he had handed anything back to the man, the hearing was told. Asked whether she should have challenged this, she said: “It definitely could have been challenged.
“I am very disappointed that at the time I did what I was told by a senior officer because that was what I was told to do. Something that should not have happened had happened. I felt uncomfortable holding that information and not knowing what to do with it.
“PC Biggins had been around for so long. His reputation in Weston was so big, that’s why I didn’t come forward straight away.” She said the other officer with them that day, PC Leon Brueford, was also experienced and had not challenged what had happened.
“Speaking with PC Biggins and PC Brueford, this was a job that we did really well and we had three in custody,” PC Rickwood said. "This made me unsure as to whether it should be challenged or whether that was the accepted practice on that team.
“It was my first day with them. It wasn’t being spoken about as something that should not have happened. I had very limited service and I felt a lot of pressure not to come forward.”
She said her colleague and boyfriend PC Whitby came home after a shift with PC Biggins in July and said he had witnessed something similar. PC Rickwood said: “At that point it seemed less like a one-off and that there was a pattern of behaviour.”
Both officers reported it to their sergeant in September and an investigation was launched. PC Whitby told the hearing that it was “very concerning” for a police officer to supply drugs to someone.
He said PC Biggins had apparently seized two wraps of crack cocaine from a known user during their patrol but the following day was only booking in one wrap into the evidence stores. PC Whitby told the hearing: “So where had the other one gone?”
He said he believed the man had given information about his dealer – who was arrested that day – in exchange for some of his drugs back from PC Biggins. PC Whitby said: “I regret enormously the amount of time it took to make this report and bring it to someone’s attention.”
He said part of the reason for the delay was that he had seen some colleagues “alienated and treated badly” for reporting wrongdoing. “Selfishly I didn’t want this to be my experience, but in hindsight I appreciate this was the wrong decision," PC Whitby said. The hearing continues.
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