Jessica Fitzhugh and Ellie-Mae Doherty, both 22, accessed personal details about their ‘undesirable’ boyfriends with criminal records while working for Derbyshire Constabulary
Two police call handlers who “flaunted” their training by accessing and sharing confidential information with criminals have been sentenced to prison.
Jessica Fitzhugh and Ellie-Mae Doherty, both 22, delved into personal details about their criminal boyfriends while employed by Derbyshire Constabulary. Fitzhugh, hailing from Belper in Derbyshire, confessed to unauthorised access to computer material, while Doherty, from Ripley, Derbyshire, admitted to the graver offence of misconduct in a public office, after passing on some of the information she discovered to her partner.
After a two-day hearing at Leicester Crown Court which wrapped up on Thursday, Doherty was handed an 11-month prison sentence and Fitzhugh received a four-month term.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Timothy Spencer KC referred to them as “naïve” 19-year-olds whom he “loosely” described as “girlfriends of two undesirable young men”.
He stated: “Regrettably and for reasons that now you will find impossible to rationalise, you both flaunted the clear training, the clear direction and the clear guidelines you were given by the Derbyshire Police.
“In your case Ellie-Mae Doherty it went further because the information you accessed was clearly passed on in two distinct ways at two distinct times.”
The court heard that Fitzhugh began working for the force in January 2023, aged 19, initially as a call handler and then a dispatcher, before recommending her friend Doherty for a position, who joined as a call handler in September 2023.
Both women underwent “intense” scrutiny and were obliged to read and sign declarations stating they had no contacts who were “engaged in criminal activities”.
Prosecutor Helen Rodger stated that each woman had a sexual relationship with men involved in crime, and should have recognised these as “disclosable associations”.
The first instance of Doherty accessing information about an incident and passing it on to Robbie Braddock, with whom she was reportedly in a relationship, occurred in December 2023, approximately two months after she finished her control room training.
Doherty shared details about the incident, a brawl in which another man had broken a window, with Braddock. Ms Rodger mentioned a second incident involving Doherty on March 6, 2024, where she accessed details about a search warrant being executed and passed on information about it to the same man as before.
Doherty viewed the details of the incident several times before also checking who was in custody at Ripley custody suite. Fitzhugh, who was also reported to be in a relationship with a man with a criminal record, looked up incidents in spring 2024, out of what the judge termed “idle curiosity”.
The two women, who met while both working at McDonald’s before joining the force, sat separately in the dock and were accompanied in court by their families.
Judge Spencer speculated that perhaps their “friendship has not survived this case” and said “I have little doubt that it will haunt you for the rest of your days”. He stated: “It’s impossible to recognise the young women who I read about, with such positive qualities, in the women who committed these offences.”
In defence of Fitzhugh, Elizabeth Power argued that she had a “lack of awareness” about the “severity of the breaches that she made”.
Lowri Butterworth, representing Doherty, informed the court that her client was “acutely aware” and had been utilising her time since to “give back” to her community.
Both women were charged in April following an investigation spearheaded by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) after conduct referrals.
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