TWO police officers accused of falsifying witness statements and trying to hide CCTV footage of an alleged domestic assault have been suspended after being charged with neglecting or violating their duties.
The Greenock Telegraph reports that according to prosecutors, Kevin Montgomery and Connor Beggs entered false information into Police Scotland records following reported "attacks" at the Arnold Clark dealership in Greenock in August 2021.
The constables, aged 33 and 30, allegedly failed to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the incidents at the East Hamilton Street premises, and attempted to pervert the course of justice by implicating two men for a crime that the officers knew they did not commit.
Court papers claim that the pair of PCs - whose addresses are listed as "courtesy of Police Scotland's professional standards department in Dalmarnock" - falsified witness statements from a man and a woman, attempted to conceal the existence of CCTV footage showing the alleged assaults, and submitted a standard prosecution report to the procurator fiscal with information which they knew to be false.
It is alleged that Montgomery and Beggs "did neglect or violate your duties as constables" between the date of the reported assaults, three years ago, and January 2023.
The charges claim that "having reason to believe crimes of assault to injury and assault to injury with a domestic aggravation had occurred", the officers failed to notify their control room that they were dealing with a domestic incident, failed to take witness statements, failed to comply with the Police Scotland standard operating procedure for domestic abuse, and failed to comply with the force's domestic abuse toolkit.
It is also alleged that they failed to enter a record of the offences into the police's crime file recording system, failed to conduct a full and thorough investigation, failed to proactively pursue the perpetrators, and failed to report the offenders to the procurator fiscal for the crimes "with all due speed".
The officers, who were absent when the case called at Greenock Sheriff Court last week, submitted letters pleading not guilty to the charges.
Sheriff Anthony McGeehan scheduled a trial for later this year.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Two male officers, aged 30 and 33, were charged and reported to the procurator fiscal for alleged on duty offences.
"They are both suspended and appeared at Greenock Sheriff Court on Friday, June 28, 2024.”
