The shocking act of the police officer against his wife’s lover after learning that she was having an affair with his pilot friend
- Woman had an affair with Virgin Australia airline pilot
- Her cop husband found out and made false claims about him
An affair between a Virgin pilot and the estranged wife of a police officer led to him being grounded for months after the police officer made false claims about him to the airline.
The lies against the pilot were revealed in the findings of a Queensland Court of Civil Appeals which found that the now-retired police officer also used “emotional control behaviour” as a tool of domestic violence after discovering the affair.
He made a series of claims to airline bosses, including that the pilot was color blind and a heavy drinker, for which he was immediately suspended.
The pilot was suspended from flying for months after the false claims were made against him.
The former police officer asked QCAT to review the findings of a separate internal investigation into the Queensland Police Service, which found that he had committed five instances of misconduct.
All but one of those instances of misconduct were corroborated by QCAT acting senior member Ann Fitzpatrick last week.
The court was told that his then-wife filed for divorce from the former officer in July 2014.
A few days later he discovered that she was having an affair with the Virgin pilot, with whom he had been friends since 1999.
In early August, the former officer picked up his wife’s phone and read her text messages and emails.
The court conceded that given the ‘deeply personal and distressing’ nature of the circumstances, most people would behave inappropriately.
The pilot and the ex-wife of the officer have already married.
The court upheld the QPS’s findings that the behavior amounted to domestic violence as it was a means of emotional control. Furthermore, the behavior exhibited was not an acceptable level of conduct for a police officer.
The court heard that the former officer threatened the pilot by email that he “may also have obligations to compulsorily report to CASA that a Virgin pilot is dyslexic and has chronic asthma.”
The officer contacted CASA’s senior medical officer a month later and claimed that the pilot was color blind and had been working under the influence of excessive alcohol consumption.
The pilot was inactive for several months until the coroners cleared him to resume the flight.
In its decision, the court stated that the allegations were serious “because they involve a deliberate act of victimization, cost and distress to an individual, as well as cost to a commercial airline.”
The officer also used a false name and address to make a false claim about the pilot, telling Brisbane City Council on two occasions that the pilot was carrying out unauthorized construction work at his Brisbane home.
The court also upheld the QPS finding that the former officer had signed a false affidavit regarding the domestic violence proceedings, denying making the report.
The police officer and the woman have now divorced and she has married the pilot (file image)
Elsewhere, the court assessed a January 2017 incident in which the officer, in a private capacity at his son’s school, bragged to teachers that he “put people in jail.”
While the court acknowledged that the statement likely intimidated teachers, it was dismissed as not constituting misconduct.
“At worst, the statement was self-important and unnecessary,” the court wrote.
The man, who has since been fired by Queensland police, also engaged in misconduct when he told a senior officer in late 2017 that he wanted to “jump over the table and hit you over the head” while being interviewed as part of the proceedings. disciplinary. .
The court found that the threat was immediately countered by an apology, but making the threat to a superior officer constituted misconduct.
QCAT will review the sanction action at a later date.
