A police officer who shared information about a suspect with family members has been sacked by Lancashire Constabulary.

John-Paul Critchley appeared at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court on Monday, May 15 after pleading guilty to disclosing personal data.

Critchley, formerly a paramedic with North West Ambulance Service, joined Lancashire Police in 2019 and spent time working in Preston and Chorley.

The court was told that in August 2020, Critchley had been called to an incident in which he’d had to detain a member of the public.

Following this he accessed a police computer and took a screenshot of a statement taken from the suspect.

The statement named the person and gave the location of the incident that had taken place, as well as naming other police officers who had been involved.

He then sent these images to his mother-in-law who was looking after his children.

Peter Williams, prosecuting, said: “The information was sent to explain why he was late, or would be late in picking his daughter up.”

Critchley, 32, of Wrennall Court, Darcy Lever, then sent further messages to his partner's mum discussing further details about people in relation to the incident he had attended the previous day.

Mr Williams said that Critchley also mentioned information about a person who had not been arrested and discussed Lancashire Police operational procedures.

Mitigating, Julian King said: “He joined Lancashire Constabulary in 2019, his previous working life was with the ambulance service.

“He had always harboured a passion and desire for becoming a police officer.

“He was working late on a regular basis, fairly young in the role, trying to find his feet and was finding it very difficult to organise childcare.

“It was such that he felt he needed to justify his lateness, that he was working and couldn’t leave.”

Critchley was ordered to pay a total of £1,835, including a fine of £1,250, £85 in legal costs and a £500 victim surcharge.

District Judge Thomas Mitchell added: “On the balance of probabilities, as a result of a criminal conviction, it is very likely with criminal proceedings that it is the case that you will no longer be a police officer in the very near future.”

After the allegations of the offences came out, Critchley was suspended with pay from Lancashire Police.

An accelerated misconduct hearing was held at Ormskirk Police Station in respect of Critchley on October 5, where he faced allegations that he breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour by knowingly or recklessly disclosed personal data without the consent of the data controller contrary to s170 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

The panel, chaired by Chief Constable Chris Rowley, found the matters amounted to gross misconduct and Critchley was dismissed without notice and will now be included on the police barring list.