Detective who shared photos of murdered teenager retired on full pay last week

The Met detective who shared graphic crime scene photographs of murdered teenager Sally Anne Bowman for ‘bragging rights’ will face no penalty for gross misconduct because he retired last Friday.

Det Sgt Jason ‘Grafs’ Grafham also made a series of sexual and derogatory remarks about his female colleagues, a misconduct tribunal found.

But the tribunal at Palestra House in Blackfriars, south London, hsd no power to punish him after the disgraced cop retired on full pay – three days before his hearing began.

Louise McCullough, for the Met, said: ‘There are only two outcomes that can take place here because he is now retired as of Friday 10 July.’

She said the panel can either place Grafham on the barred list or take no further action.

The ‘obsessed’ detective claimed he kept the crime scene photographs for ‘training purposes’ but panel chair Cmdr Paul Trevers said: ‘The panel does not accept this information.

‘Neither witnesses B nor C had been trained on this material, and DC Neil did not ask for them to be shown.’

He said Grafham had stored the photocopied exhibits in an ‘easily accessible’ area behind his desk for ‘personal gratification or bragging, rather than for any professional reason.’

He added: ‘Displaying graphic crime scene photographs from a closed murder case… without a policing purpose was profoundly inappropriate and demonstrates a failure to treat the victim with dignity.’

Sally Anne, 18, was stabbed to death in 2005 by pub chef Mark Dixie, who then raped her as she lay dead or dying at her home in Croydon, south London.

Dixie, now 56, was jailed for life with a minimum of 34 years at the Old Bailey in 2008 for murdering Sally Anne in 2008.

The evil pub chef was later handed two further life sentences in 2017 after he admitted to a pair of historic sex assaults.

And the misconduct panel also found Grafham had ‘repeatedly failed to treat colleagues with dignity and respect of a serving police officer.’

‘Colleagues describe being disgusted, offended, and uncomfortable.

‘The conduct undermines dignity, trust and safety within the workplace.

‘His behaviour displays a disregard for professional boundaries, respect owed to colleagues, and a misuse of authority inherent in his role.’

The tribunal heard Grafham made repeated sexual remarks within the office and even told one of his own officers ‘You were exactly Mark Dixie’s type.’

The witness, known only as ‘Ms C’, earlier said: ‘[It] creeped me out… I just walked off and thought, God, that’s my line manager now.’

She added it became a ‘running joke’ in the office how often Grafham would mention the Sally Anne murder, saying: ‘He mentions that every time, “run Mark Dixie’s fluid in case it was him”.’

‘That made me really uncomfortable, that he compared me to the unfortunate victim, rather than seeing me as a police officer who had spent 14 years in the homicide command.’

On one occasion when she was talking about some plastering that she wanted doing at her home, Grafham ‘grinned’ and said: ‘By the time I’ll have finished with you, you will look like a plasterer’s radio.’

She told the tribunal: ‘Even when he was thinking it, I can see him forming the joke in his head, “once I am finished with you”, I was really shocked.

‘It was so outrageous what he was implying, ejaculating on me, that’s what he was implying.’

‘I thought he had more respect for me as a woman officer.’

The tribunal found eight of the nine allegations of gross misconduct were proven, seven of which included discriminatory or misogynistic remarks.

Grafham has no prior findings of misconduct.

The hearing continues.

ENDS