A "sleazy" Met Police officer massaged the backs of two female colleagues and told one: "Don’t worry I won’t rape you, or maybe I will.". PC Jack Donovan placed his hand on the thighs of both junior officers and made a string of sexually charged and insulting comments about women.
One of the female officers said Donovan began massaging her back as they guarded a suspect at Hillingdon Hospital, running his hands down her spine and touching the top of her buttock. Messages between colleagues show Donovan saying of a vulnerable member of the public "arrest her for being a c**t", and commenting on a passing woman: "She really got her boobs out.".
A police misconduct hearing concluded Donovan had put his hand on the thighs of his colleagues and massaged their backs. But the panel found the touching – committed in 2022 while part of the emergency response team in Feltham - was sexual in nature but not sexually motivated.
Donovan joined the Met as a PC in 2015 after a period as a PCSO, and had previously worked as a sports masseuse and assistant physio at Southampton FC. "This is serious offending which is at the highest level of inappropriate", the panel ruled. "It was lewd, sleazy and the comments were truly abhorrent. ".
They said Donovan had "showed some insight" but denied much of the misconduct. "(He) was never challenged previously on his behaviour of providing massages or placing his hand on colleagues knees", the panel said. "These proceedings and this decision are a very clear marker that he must stop the behaviours in which he has engaged and change his behaviour.".
Donovan was spared the sack, and instead given a final written warning which will last for five years. The misconduct hearing was told Donovan was guarding a crime scene at Ealing Business Park with one of the female colleagues when she revealed her relationship had recently broken down and she was struggling with tiredness.
They agreed to take it in turns to rest, but when she closed her eyes Donovan poked her handcuffs and bicep with a pen, and then said: ”Don’t worry I won’t rape you or maybe I will”. Donovan insisted he would not make that kind of comment and had respect for women. But the hearing was shown a series of text messages in which he had made bad jokes, sexually charged comments, and insulting remarks about women.
In one, he said of a female member of the public: “I wish to punch her”. In a second incident at the hospital, Donovan prodded the officer on her back below her bra strap, before using one finger to rub her lower back in a circular motion, ending at her left buttock cheek.
The female officer said when Donovan asked to massage her she replied “If you want”, and told the misconduct hearing “she responded in this manner as she was feeling incredibly uncomfortable and did not know what to say to make the situation less uncomfortable for her.
“She said that she did not tell him to stop as he was an experienced member of the team and she was new.“. He had also sent her messages at the same time as the incident, saying: “I can’t massage your hips, your butt is too big” and adding “you could kill someone with it”.
Donovan accused the second female officer of inventing allegations against him to support her friend’s initial complaint. But the panel concluded he had “a behaviour of touching other peoples’ thighs in a work environment“, and had done this to the second officer.
She also revealed that at the station she had done a bouncing movement on her chair, and Donovan said to her he wished his girlfriend “would bounce on my d*ck like that”. ”We consider that the conduct was unwelcome, inappropriate and violated her dignity”, said the panel.
