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The sexting inspector: Officer sent dirty texts, downloaded porn on work phone and enjoyed lunchtime tryst with lover on duty

By IAN GARLAND

PUBLISHED: 08:39 GMT, 9 April 2012 | UPDATED: 14:47 GMT, 9 April 2012




Sacked Chief Inspector Mark Brew (left) with Policing Minister Nick Herbert

A police chief has been fired after he was caught using a work phone to download porn and exchange dirty text messages.

Chief Inspector Mark Brew, 47, was in charge of more than 100 officers on Merseyside's Matrix anti-gun unit, before he was dismissed last week for gross misconduct.A disciplinary hearing also heard how married Brew left a junior officer in charge of a conference he was running while he sneaked off for a lunchtime sex session with a married lover.

He was also accused of making a junior cop drive 200 miles to pick him up from a conference in London and drive him home to Liverpool.Brew admitted using his police-issue iPhone and Blackberry to trawl the net for pornography and to send and receive text messages with two women, thought to be colleagues on the force.

But he denied accusations of a lunchtime tryst, despite a confession from the woman.It's thought Brew's bosses were particularly alarmed by the claims he used the force as a fee taxi service - forcing an officer to drive across the country to escort him home, rather than just catching a train.

A Merseyside Police Spokesman said: 'We can confirm that a misconduct hearing took place last week for a serving police officer. Following this hearing, the officer, a chief inspector, was dismissed with immediate effect for gross misconduct.'A police source added that there had been a 'shake-up' across the unit, adding 'high standards of professionalism and integrity are non-negotiable'.

Chief Inspector Brew has two weeks to appeal the decision.Before his dismissal, Brew was a key figure on the Matrix anti-gun and gang offensive - put into place by current Metropolitan Police Bernard Hogan-Howe.

The Matrix command is credited with solving the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in 2007 and dramatically reducing gun and gang crime on Merseyside.But the Merseyside unit is no stranger to scandal.Last August five Matrix officers were sacked by a disciplinary panel after taking mobile phone pictures of themselves messing around inside a house they were meant to be searching.



Five Merseyside Police Matrix officers were sacked in 2011 after posing for mobile phone pictures in a house they were meant to be raiding