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A police officer sent a picture of a young child with photoshopped adult male genitals to colleagues in a WhatsApp group, a misconduct panel has heard.

South Wales Police Constable Erica Ray sent the image as part of an ongoing joke at the expense of another officer’s height, a police misconduct panel heard on Thursday.

The picture caused offence to some of the officers in the group who deleted the picture from their own devices and later referred the matter to their line manager.

Presenting counsel for South Wales Police, Jonathan Walters, said the behaviour amounted to discreditable conduct.

In his opening statement Mr Walters told the hearing PC Ray had been working in the management of sex offenders and violent offenders team at Cardiff Bay police station when the incident occurred on December 15, 2017.

“At 8.25am on December 15, 2017, [PC Ray] sent the image of the young boy to her colleagues,” Mr Walters said.

“It was an image she had been sent by her brother as a joke. It is conceded that the image was sent by PC Ray to her colleagues as a joke. The butt of the joke was DC Christian Williams.

“Shortly after receiving the message some of the recipients reported the matter to their line manager Sergeant [Andrew] Boffy. By the following morning it had been escalated to the senior management team and action was then taken to secure PC Ray’s phone on December 16, 2017.”

The hearing was told the image was of a young child, with a bowl haircut, which had been edited so that it appeared the child had adult male genitals. A caption was included in the image which read “I hated that haircut but I was a happy baby”.

PC Ray wrote a message below in the WhatsApp group saying: “I’m sorry Christian I said I wouldn’t but I couldn’t resist”.

Mr Walters explained the matter was originally a criminal investigation and proceedings were launched but they were dismissed after the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence at Bristol Crown Court in August 2018.

Giving evidence in her defence PC Ray said she hadn’t considered the image to be of a child but thought it to be of a small man. She said she did not consider the picture to be indecent.

She said: “I never, ever considered it to be indecent – inappropriate.

“If I thought it would have offended anybody I would never have sent it.

“As soon as I learned what everybody had said about the image I deleted it off my phone straight away.”

PC Ray said she considered the image to be an internet meme and had not edited the image herself.

She said: “My understanding of a meme is it’s an image that is altered to make it a joke then.”

PC Ray, who joined the force as a traffic warden in 1997 and became a PC in 1999, added: “It was a joke. I had the image and I saw it as a small man. It didn’t even register that it was a child.”

The misconduct panel consisted of Superintendent Edward Ough, independent panel member Anthony Richards, and panel chair Peter Griffiths QC.

Addressing PC Ray following the hearing, Peter Griffiths QC said: “Applying the burden and standard of proof we find that that the image that you sent was indecent.

“We find that that image was also offensive. We find that you were in breach of standard nine – discreditable conduct.

“We are not satisfied this amounts to gross misconduct but we are satisfied that it amounts to misconduct.”

The panel will reconvene on Friday to hear submissions before making a decision on the outcome.

The hearing continues.

UPDATE: The panel found PC Ray's conduct amounted to misconduct and imposed a written warning, which will remain valid for 12 months.