Armed royal PC Andrew Daly asked if girl was a virgin Published duration 4 December 2018

image copyright Reuters image caption Armed police routinely patrol outside Buckingham Palace (file picture)

A royal police officer who got a teenage girl to give him her number while he was on duty outside Buckingham Palace should be sacked, a conduct panel has ruled.

PC Andrew Daly asked the 16-year-old if she was a virgin in a series of "sexualised and abusive" texts.

Although he said he did not know her age, the panel said he "clearly knew she was very young".

The panel said instant dismissal was "the appropriate and only decision".

Married royalty and specialist protection officer PC Daly was "fully responsible for initiating the contact" in May 2016, independent chairman Akbar Khan said.

'Supposed to trust'

Giving evidence, the woman, who has not been named, said she was originally from Hungary and had lived in the UK for six years at the time.

She had been visiting the palace with her mother and sister when an armed officer asked for her number, she said.

The woman, now 18, said she did not want to give it to him and told him how old she was.

When asked why she had not questioned PC Daly about why he wanted her number, she said she did not think to "ask a policeman with a gun why he wanted something".

image caption Andrew Daly was working as an armed officer at Buckingham Palace

"I was disgusted, I felt quite violated. I had a random person talking to me and saying if I am a virgin," she said.

"He was a police officer, he was someone I am supposed to trust while I am walking around the streets, that I am supposed to call when I am in trouble."

PC Daly did not attend his misconduct hearing but the panel heard he did not contest the allegations.

Charles Apthorp, counsel for the Met, said the girl's age was an aggravating factor.

"A police officer in the position that this officer was in should not be seeking to initiate sexual relations in this manner.

"We are in a very different place from where it was acceptable for police officers to pick up women outside Buckingham Palace."

Delivering the panel's findings, Mr Khan said the girl would have been vulnerable "by reason of the imbalance of power between the two".

"Members of the public would be appalled by the conduct of the officer towards the complainant, especially given his role as a specialist officer in a highly visible role," he said.

"In the circumstances, the panel considers that dismissal without notice is the appropriate and only decision."