End of career for cop who celebrated end of course with firebombs

A Met Police instructor who lobbed petrol bombs at a car after a boozy celebration to mark the end of a training course has been kicked out of the force.

PC James Duthoit hurled the Molotov cocktails that led to a blaze which had to be put out with 150 fire extinguishers at the riot training base in Gravesend, Kent.

Duthoit was among a team of officers and students celebrating the conclusion of the five-week Public Order Instructors Course in March 2022.

The group ended up at the medical hut within the training centre and had been drinking, the Met Police hearing was told.

Many of the officers and students returned to their bedrooms on site, but Duthoit and others including two Canadian students, remained at the medical hut.

They armed themselves with petrol bombs at 2:10am on 18 March 2022 and hurled them at a pool car at the £41m facility which features a mock town for public order training.

The vehicle was engulfed in flames and the blaze was put put with some 150 handheld fire extinguishers, the Met Police misconduct hearing was told.

Duthoit, who has since left the force, denied misconduct and said he had no recollection of throwing a petrol bomb.’

He did not attend the hearing but said in a statement in May 2023: ‘At no stage throughout the evening did I feel that any member of the group was in danger or that the fire was out of control, if I thought that was the case, I would have had no difficultly whatsoever in calling the Fire Brigade.

‘I had consumed alcohol, I was also hugely tired after the running of the course.

‘I had not anticipated, given the lack of any substances that might ignite, that there would be such a consequence.

‘Without there being any evidence, I was considered responsible.

‘I feel I am being made a scapegoat, when all I did was try to put the fire out.’

Duthoit named all the officers and students other than two he believed threw petrol bombs.

Panel chair Commander Jason Prins said: ‘Former PC Duthoit maintained he saw nothing wrong in principle with the throwing of the petrol bombs.

‘In the opinion of the panel, it is incredulous that this would have happened without Former PC Duthoit.

‘It is highly unlikely the students would have thrown petrol bombs without Former PC Duthoit.

‘He said that the fire was under control, despite evidence to the contrary.

‘Having found the allegation against former PC Duthoit proved, the panel went on to determine whether the behaviour amounted to a breach of the standard of conduct.

‘Former PC Duthoit was one of several officers responsible for throwing petrol bombs; in the opinion of the panel, this was reckless.

‘He had lied to the security staff about the cause of the fire and that the fire was under control when it was not.

‘The former officer was fully culpable for his actions, which were deliberate.

‘It has attracted media attention as such doing damage to police reputation.

‘The panel therefore concluded that former PC Duthoit’s conduct amounted to gross misconduct.’

George Thomas, for the Met Police, had told the panel it was not in dispute that Duthoit or his colleagues had been part of a public order training course.

‘Following an end-of-course celebration, the officers went back to Gravesend where they were staying.

‘This is part of the facility where a mock town has been created in order to create realistic scenarios.’

Within the mock town exists a classroom and the stripped-down pool car.

Mr Thomas said the petrol bombs had been made on site and stored in a specific area on the training compound .

‘At about 2:10am on 18 March, petrol bombs which had previously been made for use during public order training, were thrown.

‘It was clearly a substantial fire, it did over £10,000 worth of damage.

‘A significant feature of this case is that no one has taken responsibility for throwing any of the petrol bombs, nor has anyone given a reliable, accurate account of what happened that evening.

‘There was a CCTV camera which shows the rear side wall, on the immediate other side of the wall was where the car was parked, the CCTV does not show the interior.

‘What we can see are flashes of light followed by a constant light, which is the fire.

‘This fire is not under control, it may be that it burns through its fuel, but it is clear that it is not under control here.

‘Is it credible that he, as the lead instructor, was not involved in that activity?

‘There were other instructors, of course, but he was the leading instructor.

‘He said in his second statement, somebody placed an unlit petrol bomb, he doesn’t say who it was.

‘When it comes to himself, he suddenly has a memory lapse, he cannot remember whether or not he threw petrol bombs himself.

‘He does not say I did not throw the petrol bomb, it is all in the passive voice, however, I do have one of the accounts of the Canadian officers, that it was PC Duthoit who carried at least one petrol bomb from the store to the medical hut.

‘PC Duthoit is not here to provide his evidence to you, he has said on paper that he feels he has been a scapegoat, he says he denies his allegations, but he does not deny it, he says he cannot remember, he said he picked up a crate but only describes that crate as containing a fire extinguisher.’

Commander Prins added: ‘The panel consider the harm to be extremely high.

‘The panel consider the following to be aggravating factors.

‘He tried to blame others for his wrongdoing.

‘He was drunk, significant actual damage was caused, and he was training future public order instructors.

’The panel found there were no mitigating factors – there were personal character references, though the panel gave this little weight.

‘The panel considers this to be an extremely serious breach of professional standards.

‘If former PC Duthoit had been a serving police officer, a final written warning would not have been appropriate or proportionate.

‘His behaviour was akin to the behaviour of criminal damage and the only outcome had Mr Duthoit been a member of the police service is immediate dismissal from the service.’