An off-duty policewoman who drunkenly approached a man at a nightclub and ‘touched or cupped his groin’ has kept her job.
PC Zoe Williams, an officer with Dyfed Powys Police, received a chief constable’s commendation in 2024 after administering life-saving CPR to a toddler.
But on a night out with friends in St David’s, Pembrokeshire in August of that year, the ‘disinhibited’ constable was seen dancing in a ‘fairly extravagant manner’, a misconduct hearing was told.
She was seen embracing or hugging clubgoers who she knew, as well as chatting to a group of men from the Cardiff area who she had met while walking to the Royal Air Force Association (RAFA) club, it heard.
According to the panel’s judgement, PC Williams ‘engaged’ with two of the men, whose names have ‘never been established’.
‘She appears to have been particularly interested in Male A who was quite tall with a distinctive haircut and was wearing a black T-shirt,’ it found.
The allegation she faced stated: ‘During the evening you walked towards an unknown male whilst inside the club and once stood in front of him you touched or cupped his groin without any reasonable belief that he consented to you touching him sexually.’
The panel heard that ‘Male A’ did not make a complaint, but CCTV footage allegedly shows PC Williams touching his groin area.
In her prepared statement, PC Williams – who joined the Welsh force in 2020 – ‘vehemently’ denied touching the man deliberately.
‘I do not know his name,’ she said.
‘I was moving past him and instinctively moved him by touching his midriff. There was no assault.’
Giving evidence, PC Williams said that on a scale of one to 10, where 10 was very drunk, she was at six.
She had consumed four or five double gin and tonics earlier in the evening at a pub and several glasses of ‘baby Guinness’, a mixture of Irish cream and coffee liqueur.
In addition, at the RAFA Club she had one Sambuca shot.
PC Williams said she had drunk more than normal and her ‘inhibitions were slightly reduced’, according to the judgement, ‘but she was not falling about or out of control’.
She denied touching Male A below his belt level or ‘fancying’ him or ‘wanting to tell him that she wanted something to happen between them’.
However the misconduct panel found the touching wasn’t accidental and had in fact been sexual.
‘PC Williams did not exercise self-control,’ it said.
‘She did not show respect and courtesy towards Male A, whom she hardly knew.’
It found her actions amounted to gross misconduct which could therefore result in her dismissal from the force.
But it instead imposed a final written warning after hearing seven testimonials given on her behalf.
It gave ‘particular’ weight to the ‘exceptional assistance’ which PC Williams gave to a concerned mother on a beach in January 2024.
The officer was walking along Solva Beach in Pembrokeshire when she was alerted by screams for help.
She found Fran Jackson pleading for help after her two-year-old daughter, Elliott, suddenly fell unconscious.
PC Williams ‘took control of the situation’, according to a citation, performing CPR for 25 minutes and improving the toddler’s condition until paramedics arrived.
Thankfully Elliott – who had suffered cardiac arrest – made a full recovery in hospital.
Doctors told her parents that due to both her young age and the remoteness of the incident, she would have faced only a five per cent survival rate without PC Williams’ resuscitation attempts.
She subsequently received commendations from Dyfed Powys Police’s Chief Constable and High Sheriff.
At the time the constable said she was ‘chuffed’, adding: ‘It’s very nice to be recognised, and I appreciate the fuss that has been made over me.
‘The most important thing, still, is that Elliott is alive and happy and healthy – that’s all that will ever matter for me.’
The misconduct panel was chaired by Gwent Assistant Chief Constable Vicki Townsend.
She said the panel had decided it was ‘an isolated incident which was out of character for PC Williams’.
ACC Townsend concluded that a final written warning would make it clear that such ‘inappropriate behaviour’ had the potential to ‘undermine public confidence’ in policing.
Sacking her would be ‘disproportionately harsh towards her and would harm the community where she lives and works by depriving it of someone who has proved to be a good police officer in the past,’ she added.
