The mother of a murdered teenager has ‘lost faith in our justice system’ after a ‘vile’ police officer who took selfies while guarding the scene walked free from court.
Ryan Connolly, 41, was cleared of misconduct in public office last week after taking photos at the scene where 16-year-old Daniel Gee-Jamieson was fatally stabbed in Gateacre, Liverpool, in July 2018.
Connolly’s warped behaviour was exposed when he was arrested in February 2020 and detectives found more than 50 photos on his phone, including pictures of vulnerable people detained at hospitals.
He also admitted to possessing ‘highly disturbing’ extreme pornography, including two videos of sexual acts involving animals and a third showing a man appearing to cause injury to himself.
Nearly eight years on from Daniel’s death, Connolly was found not guilty of misconduct in public office and escaped jail with a suspended sentence for the extreme pornography charges.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Daniel’s mother Mandy Jamieson said: ‘It just feels that because he is a policeman, he’s got away with it. He was in a position of power and he abused it.
‘I have got no faith whatsoever in our justice system anymore. I’ve got no faith even in the police anymore. Our system is broken.
‘People are going to jail for posting comments on Facebook, which is nothing compared to what this idiot had on his phone and he’s walked free. He is just vile, absolutely vile. It was such a lack of respect.’
Ryan Connolly, 41, took selfies at the scene where teenager Daniel Gee-Jamieson was killed
Daniel (pictured) was stabbed in the thigh by Owen Cousins, 17, just a few minutes’ walk from his front door
Last week, Connolly was cleared of four charges of misconduct in public office after the jury was discharged five days into his trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Prosecutors argued that Connolly ‘wilfully misconducted himself’ by taking the photos where there was ‘no professional need to do so’ and that he retained them and sent them on.
But the court heard that with the exception of one photograph, sent to a supervising officer, there was no evidence of who he had sent the pictures to. Connolly claimed the images were taken for work purposes, but they had not been uploaded to police systems.
Judge Nicholas Dean KC ruled the prosecution’s evidence could not amount to proving Connolly committed misconduct and it would not be legal for a jury to consider verdicts on the charges – something Ms Jamieson questions why it took so long for the court to realise.
The judge told jurors that misconduct in public office is one of the few remaining common law offences which is hard to define and is often a form of corruption.
He gave the example of police officers sometimes being prosecuted for tipping off criminals about police investigations for money – but nothing like that had been suggested in Connolly’s case.
The judge ordered not guilty verdicts to be recorded on the fifth day of the trial last week. Prosecutors have until Monday to consider whether to appeal against the ruling.
Connolly was formally dismissed in 2021 by Merseyside Police, who described his behaviour as ‘deplorable’.
A misconduct hearing was told other images found on his phone were racist, homophobic and mocked disabled people, and messages showed he socialised with a known criminal.
And it can now be reported that he pleaded guilty to three offences of possessing extreme pornography in November 2021.
Two videos showed sexual acts involving animals and the third showing a man injuring himself was described by the judge as ‘repugnant and worryingly so, in the sense it involves scenes of a masochistic or sadistic nature’.
Describing Connolly’s behaviour, Ms Jamieson told the Mail: ‘He’s a sexual deviant, a predator, a pervert. I think he needs help.
‘Keep your kids and your women away from this man because he is completely sick in the head.
‘You just think how many other police officers are like that? I’ve got no faith in it anymore.
‘In that court, he was so arrogant it was unbelievable. How dare you?’
‘To me it’s a police officer put in that position. There were dozens and dozens of indecent things found on that phone. And then to find out he got found guilty of extreme pornography, which to me is bestiality, he’s a sexual deviant.’
Connolly joined Merseyside Police in January 2003 but his misconduct started around 2014.
Racist photos including images of Muslims and a Ku Klux Klan member were found on his mobile. He also took a picture of a fellow officer’s bottom and sent others that mocked disabled people.
Mandy Jamieson (pictured with her son Daniel when he was younger) is furious that Connolly has walked free from court
In October 2015 he took a photo, while on duty, of someone who had slashed his wrists, and shared it on WhatsApp.
A year later he sent a graphic homophobic image and also, on separate occasions, took photographs of two men detained under the Mental Health Act who were in hospital.
The most offensive photographs were taken while he was guarding the murder scene of Daniel.
A group of 30 youths and young men had gathered in Gateacre for a ‘straightener’ – a Scouse term for a fight between two people to settle their differences.
During the fight, Daniel was stabbed in the thigh by Owen Cousins, 17, just a few minutes’ walk from his front door.
Ms Jamieson found her son covered in blood, saying the ‘colour in his face just drained’, as she held his hand.
Daniel died in hospital a short time later and Connolly was tasked with guarding the scene.
Cousins was cleared of murder and instead sentenced to 11 years in jail for manslaughter.
Over the last seven years, Ms Jamieson has seen Cousins freed from prison as well as having to go through Connolly’s trial which has been severely delayed.
Asked how she felt about seeing Connolly walk free from court after seven years of hell, Ms Jamieson told the Mail: ‘I was angry, really angry. I was at court when they were reading out all the charges and I was mortified.
‘I felt for every single person that had been photographed. Vulnerable people as well as what he did at Daniel’s crime scene.’
She added: ‘When I saw the photograph, I just thought how disrespectful are you? My child was stabbed there.’
Ms Jamieson is still unclear why Connolly’s misconduct case was dragged through the courts for so many years – just for the judge to order not guilty verdicts.
Judge Dean ruled: ‘My conclusion is the Crown cannot demonstrate the serious misconduct here, that the evidence is incapable of demonstrating serious misconduct, so the jury could not reach a conclusion so that Mr Connolly was guilty of misconduct in public office.’
He ordered not guilty verdicts to be recorded on Friday. Prosecutors have until Monday to consider whether to appeal against the ruling.
Explaining why the judge came to this decision, Gareth Martin, a partner and specialist criminal defence lawyer at Olliers Solicitors, told the Daily Mail: ‘The judge was the one who ordered the not guilty verdicts. He did so because he didn’t feel as though the prosecution had discharged their burden in relation to the very high bar which exists in Misconduct in Public Office cases for the ‘seriousness’ element of the offence.
‘The Crown Prosecution Service must show that: the offence is committed when a public officer, acting as such, wilfully neglects to perform their duty and/or wilfully misconducts themselves to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the officeholder, without reasonable excuse or justification.
‘In this case the issue of seriousness and the reasonable excuse/justification will have been key considerations.
‘The officer seems to have relied on the assertion that the pictures were taken for policing purposes. So far as we know from the reporting, there is no evidence – except for one image which itself was sent to a supervisor – that pictures were forwarded.
‘On reflection – and in consideration of the facts – it is not difficult to see how the Judge ended up where he did. It might feel wrong for some, given the circumstances, but it doesn’t necessarily make it wrong.’