THE POLICE protection officer alleged to have had an affair with the wife of Alan Johnson was last night facing disciplinary action as his bosses considered suspending him from duty.
PC Paul Rice is alleged to have become involved with Laura Johnson while serving as a protection officer for the Labour former shadow chancellor and cabinet minister.
Police insiders say it is a breach of the ethics for protection officers and could amount to a disciplinary offence of “discreditable conduct”.
The revelations were described as “embarrassing” by one Scotland Yard chief, with another saying there was “anger” at the top of the force over the “unbelievable” revelations.
The disclosure caps a damaging week for the Metropolitan Police.
Days earlier, it had to admit that a senior commander had wrongly denied to a committee of MPs that plainclothes Met officers were in the crowd at the G20 demonstrations in London in 2009. This embarrassment was followed by Guardianrevelations that an undercover officer sent to spy on environmental protesters had married one of them.
All this came as it finalises big budget cuts and without its commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, who is off work until the spring with a broken leg.
One senior officer said of the Rice allegations: “Anything like this is embarrassing. The impact is significant because we’ve seen a shadow minister having to leave his job.”
Scotland Yard chiefs moved yesterday to limit the damage from disclosures and discussed what to do about Mr Rice. He has been referred to the force’s directorate of professional standards for disciplinary action and his bosses met to discuss his removal from sensitive duties while any hearing takes place.
The initial view of Scotland Yard chiefs is that the allegations are broadly true and the officer faces action for a disciplinary offence of “discreditable conduct”.
One senior officer said: “We’re not the morality police but how an officer conducts themselves even off duty reflects on the reputation of the force. Is this an incident that happened because of his position as a police officer?”
The source believed that would be one of the central questions of any disciplinary hearing which would ultimately have the power to dismiss Mr Rice if the allegations were found to be true.
Mr Rice is one of 230 officers who are part of a unit called SO1, which provides protection for the prime minister, cabinet ministers, former ministers judged to need specialist protection and visiting heads of state. The technical term for the person they are protecting is “the principal”.
Former Met Police assistant commissioner Bob Quick was head of specialist operations at Scotland Yard. “This is really bad news,” he said. “When you deploy a protection officer, the principal is placing enormous trust not just in the Metropolitan police service but in the individual as well.” – (Guardian service)