A police officer has been sacked after ignoring warnings that a drunk man might act violently towards his partner.
Former PC Robert Ellis carried out no checks on the woman’s welfare and made no safeguarding risk assessment when he allowed the man to return home.
His partner later contacted police to report a domestic incident.
The officer, who was based in King’s Lynn, resigned on October 16 but, finding his conduct had amounted to gross misconduct, a disciplinary panel said had he still been a serving officer he would have been dismissed without notice.
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A misconduct hearing was told PC Ellis had been called to an address in October 2022 where a friend of the drunk man had warned him not to allow the man to return home following an earlier confrontation when he had spat at his partner.
The man promised to behave after being asked if he was going to “kick off” and the officer then took him back to a point near his home.
However, PC Ellis took no steps to check whether the woman was willing to receive the “drunk and potentially violent” man.
The panel said he had “abdicated a clear duty and responsibility” to check it was safe to drop him off there.
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It stated: “He did not pay any heed to the safety of a very drunk person and other people likely to be at the house. These people’s safety was more important than protecting [the drunk man] from any embarrassment.”
PC Ellis had already been subject to a final written warning for his behaviour at a similar incident, said the panel.
“The harm caused to public confidence in the police service was very high as the former officer was someone who had recently received a serious sanction for similar misconduct,” it added.
“We found that the public would be surprised and shocked at the former officer’s behaviour.”
The hearing comes amid a spate of cases after Norfolk's chief constable pledged to crack down on officer misconduct.
Other cases have seen an officer sacked for the unauthorised watching of an assault video and another dismissed for visiting a female colleague while he was meant to be on duty.
Next month a hearing will take place over a hit-and-run crash case involving a Norfolk officer said to have amnesia.
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