A former police call handler has been sentenced to 11 months in prison after abusing access to confidential police systems to pass information to her boyfriend and his criminal associates.
Ellie-Mae Doherty, now 22, had worked for Derbyshire Police for only three months when she began using information available to her through her job for purposes unrelated to policing.
She eventually accessed details about planned raids on three properties linked to people associated with her boyfriend and attempted to ensure one of those individuals was warned.
Secret message exposed the attempted warning
The extent of Doherty’s actions came to light when investigators examining her boyfriend’s phone discovered a message sent to an associate.
The message referred to a woman working at Ripley police and said she had contacted her boyfriend and instructed him to call a man known as Aiden Cope, also known as Stirch.
It indicated that the warning had arrived too late and suggested police had not yet found anything during the search.
Prosecutors told Leicester Crown Court that Doherty accepted she intended to alert Cope and that she had also communicated information that he was in police custody.
She joined the force at just 19
Doherty, from Ripley, Derbyshire, was only 19 when she began working as a call handler at Derbyshire Police headquarters.
She had been recommended for the position by her friend Jessica Fitzhugh, who was also employed as a call handler and had joined the force around eight months earlier.
Both women were subsequently investigated by anti-corruption detectives and the Independent Office for Police Conduct following allegations concerning their use of police information.
Both had denied links to criminality
The court heard that Doherty and Fitzhugh had both been asked during their recruitment whether they associated with anyone who had criminal convictions or cautions, or who was involved in criminal activity.
Both answered no and signed declarations confirming their responses.
However, prosecutors said each woman had a boyfriend with criminal convictions and that both were also acquainted with other people involved in criminality, including Cope.
They had also completed counter-corruption training and had been specifically told that police databases could only be accessed for legitimate policing purposes.
Unauthorised searches began months earlier
The first identified misuse of the police computer system occurred in December 2023.
Doherty accessed information relating to a fight involving associates of her boyfriend and sent details about the incident to him. The incident had involved a window being smashed.
Three months later, she used the police system to obtain information about search warrants being carried out at three addresses connected to her boyfriend’s associates.
The court heard that she accessed the information three times within a 32-minute period before using another police system to establish which people were currently being held in custody.
Prosecutors said the raid warning was deliberate
Helen Rodger, prosecuting, told the court that the message discovered on Doherty’s boyfriend’s phone demonstrated the purpose behind the unauthorised access.
The message stated that his girlfriend, who worked at Ripley police, had contacted him and told him to call Cope, but that the warning had come around five minutes too late.
It also suggested that police had not yet discovered anything during what was described as a thorough search of a loft.
Rodger said Doherty accepted that her intention had been to tip off Cope and that she had passed information about his detention to her boyfriend.
Fitzhugh was also sentenced
Fitzhugh, 22, from Belper, Derbyshire, appeared in the dock alongside Doherty.
She had previously admitted accessing unauthorised material on police systems and photographing the information, but denied the more serious allegation of misconduct in public office.
At Leicester Crown Court, she was sentenced to four months in prison.
Judge Timothy Spencer KC, the Recorder of Leicester, ruled that the misconduct charge should remain on her file despite her not being convicted of it.
Doherty admitted serious misconduct
Doherty pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and to failing to inform her superiors about her connections with people involved in criminal activity.
Her actions represented a serious breach of the trust placed in her as a police employee, particularly because she had received explicit training on the restrictions governing access to sensitive police information.
She was sentenced to 11 months’ imprisonment.
The case followed an investigation involving both Derbyshire Police’s anti-corruption detectives and the Independent Office for Police Conduct into the misuse of police systems and the women’s associations with individuals involved in criminality.
