Who is David Lovell and why was he dismissed from the police?

DAVID Lovell was dismissed from the police following accusations of serious misconduct.

Here we look at why he was axed from the force and issued with a sexual risk order.

Who is David Lovell?

David Lovell, 46, is a former police officer from Weston-super-Mare who worked for the Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

He was brought to justice by Detective Constable Amber Redman of the Counter Corruption Unit (CCU) after a series of serious allegations were made against him over more than a decade.

Lovell is set to appear in an episode of Channel 4's To Catch a Copper on February 12, 2024.

Why was David Lovell dismissed from the police?

Lovell was accused of posting intimate pictures of a woman online in 2021 — after she shared the images of herself with the lawman consensually.

Investigators discovered two other victims of Lovell posting intimate images of them on the internet.

Although the women supported the misconduct process, they chose not to proceed with a criminal complaint.

Redman of the CCU built the evidential case against Lovell, learning from female officers that he had been prolific in sending unsolicited indecent images of himself.

One said: "Dave would send every girl he came into contact with a picture of his penis."

Another added: "It was a standing joke that if you were a female and you hadn't been sent a picture of Dave Lovell's penis, then there must be something wrong with you.”

Lovell's disciplinary record shows that by the time this investigation commenced, he had already been investigated five times.

In 2006 he was given a verbal warning for sending inappropriate images, while in 2016 he was issued with a written warning for making inappropriate comments.

Redman said Lovell's conduct was known about a 10 years ago — but was tolerated.

Though she believes the police force is changing for the better, Redman explained: "Traditionally there has been a subculture, old rooted ideas that can be misogynistic.

"There are clearly still some officers who haven't moved on from that sort of behaviour and it's our job to find them, establish if they've done anything wrong and, if they have, to weed them out."

Lovell was fired from Avon and Somerset Police in May 2023, and a sexual risk order was imposed against him at North Somerset Magistrates' Court on June 26 of the same year.

Supt Mark Edgington, Avon and Somerset Police's head of professional standards, said: “This former officer abused the confidence placed in him by the complainants in the most distressing of ways.

“Due to the nature of the proven allegations, it’s vital we protect the public from his sexualised, predatory and exploitative behaviour.

“The Sexual Risk Order will place a series of strict and prohibitive measures on him designed to stop and prevent him from causing any further harm or distress. A breach of the order is a criminal offence for which the maximum penalty on conviction is a five-year prison sentence.

“We take our responsibilities to keep the public safe extremely seriously and taking this action was both necessary and proportionate in this case.”

What is the sexual risk order imposed against David Lovell?

The sexual risk order lasts seven years and puts strict conditions on Lovell, including:

• No unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18, except in strict circumstances outlined within the order
• No undertaking of employment likely to cause him to have unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18
• Restrictions on his usage of computers and devices capable of accessing the internet, including a ban on using false names
• No inviting or requesting people to provide/exchange sexual images of themselves with him or others
• No possession of any device capable of storing digital images, except in strict circumstances
• No sharing or distributing still or moving images of others in his possession, with a third party or in a public domain, without written consent
• He must not refuse or fail to delete any still/moving images of a person taken, created, produced or possessed by him, and over which he has direct control, upon the request of the person concerned