Liam Mills: Disgraced South Yorkshire cop who had sex on duty and sent murder scene video sobs as he is jailed

Former South Yorkshire Police Constable, Liam Mills, 34-year-old, sobbed as he was sentenced to nine months behind bars after pleading guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office and a data protection offence.

Jailing Mills during a September 30 hearing at Sheffield Crown Court, The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said: “You are the architect of this catastrophe, only you are to blame.”

“I have no doubt that not only has great shame has been brought upon you because of your conduct, but you have also brought great shame upon your family, including your children.

He added: “It is a truly shameful thing for a police officer to have conducted himself in the way that you did. There can be no doubt that your conduct warrants an immediate custodial sentence.”

Prosecuting barrister, Thomas Storey, told the court that not only did Mills strike up a sexual relationship with a vulnerable woman he met in a professional capacity when he took a statement from her concerning the coercive and controlling behaviour she alleged her former partner subjected her to; but he also had sex with her at her home while on duty as a Police Constable on at least two occasions.

Mr Storey said Mills, of Worsley Close, Barnsley, took the statement from the woman during a scheduled appointment at a Barnsley police station on August 28 last year, during which she disclosed she had recently been hospitalised after taking an overdose less than a fortnight earlier.

“It was clear from the outset that she was vulnerable,” Mr Storey said.

He added: “She also made clear in a statement she prepared that she had struggled with such matters as eating disorders and low self-esteem, and this was something her ex-partner preyed upon.”

After Mills took the statement, the woman’s case was swiftly passed onto the force’s Protecting Vulnerable People team, concluding his professional involvement with her; but he still went on to send her text messages, initially from his work phone and then from his personal phone, the court heard.

Mr Storey said the text messages exchanged between the pair were increasingly flirtacious and had become sexual in nature by September 6, 2021 – just over a week after he took her statement.

Mills subsequently abandoned a student police officer he was working with while on duty to leave his post to go and have sex with the woman at her home on September 7 and September 8.

Data obtained from Mills’ police car and Airwave police communication device showed the exact times Mills arrived and left the woman’s house on both occasions, and text messages retrieved from his personal mobile phone also confirmed that the pair had engaged in consensual sexual activity during those time periods.

The court heard how Mills lied to his partner, with whom he has children, and told her that he had to start his police shift early on September 9, but went to the woman’s house instead to have sex with her.

His partner subsequently contacted Barnsley Police Station, where Mills was based, believing he had already started work there, to try and inform him she had needed to rush their child to hospital.

Mr Storey described how during the course of Mills’ dalliance with the woman, he sent her video footage from his personal mobile phone he had taken from a Barnsley murder scene he was ‘standing guard’ at three years earlier.

He also sent her two lots of video footage from his police body-worn camera showing incidents including one in which he and colleagues attempted to restrain a man under the influence of drugs at hospital.

Commenting on Mills’ decision to send the confidential material on to a member of the public, Judge Richardson said: “These were images of a confidential nature to the police. They were not images for public distribution; or distribution to anyone other than authorised individuals. You disseminated that information to a woman with whom you were having a relationship, stemming from your involvement with her as a police officer. I dare say you did it to show off and impress her with the sort of work with which you were involved.”

Mills’ offending was brought to light after a colleague he had confided in went to their sergeant, who subsequently raised the matter with South Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards department.

He was also found to have used police records to obtain the personal number of another woman he took a statement from in July 2021, but she shut down personal communication with him within hours, and told him it made her ‘uncomfortable,’ the court heard.

Mills resigned from his post in January 2022, less than a month before a misconduct hearing. The hearing was held in his absence and it was found he would have been sacked if he had not resigned.

In mitigation, barrister Steven Reed said Mills’ contact with the woman was short-lived, adding that Mills was aware he had ‘ruined his own career’.

“His early guilty pleas show he is remorseful for his actions...he is truly sorry for the inconvenience he has caused to his colleagues who had to investigate,” Mr Reed added.

Judge Richardson said he had taken into consideration Mills’ medical conditions, the nature of which were not disclosed, and the fact he was likely to have a difficult time in prison because of his former role with South Yorkshire Police; but felt that only an immediate prison sentence was appropriate.

He said: “The public also need reassurance that police officers who break the law in the way you did by abusing the trust imposed in you will be punished appropriately by the courts. This case reveals a betrayal of trust of some significance.”

“You have brought this misery upon yourself.”