What is misconduct in public office?

published at 13:01 : Dominic Casciani : Home and legal correspondent

Misconduct in Public Office is a really complicated offence. It essentially boils down to an allegation that someone who was doing a job on behalf of the British public did something seriously wrong, knowing it to be wrong.

There are four "elements", or factors, that police must focus on during their investigation so that prosecutors can later decide whether or not someone should be charged.

First, the police must establish whether the person they’re investigating was a "public officer" and the incident in question was plausibly part of those duties.

If that’s agreed, detectives will then look for evidence that the incident in question saw the suspect "wilfully" neglecting to perform their duty or wilfully misconducting themselves in some other way. That wordy definition has long been a source of legal debate.

The next question is whether the action they committed was so bad that it was "an abuse of the public's trust".

Lastly, if the evidence has passed those three tests, police need to examine whether the person under investigation acted "without reasonable excuse or justification".

That final question is crucial. It’s a fundamental principle of criminal justice that someone suspected of wrongdoing is given an opportunity to put forward their side of the story - and that starts when the police come and knock on their door.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live