A TRUSTED Cumbria Police call-handler illegally used the force’s computer system to secretly research her “criminal boyfriend”, his family and their associates.

Genna Fowler, 26, also shared highly-sensitive information about a sex crime investigation, sending a screenshot via Facebook messenger of a computer log identifying the people involved.

At Carlisle Crown Court, Fowler, of Spittal Farm, Wigton, who was suspended on full pay for 14 months because she refused to admit wrongdoing, yesterday faced up to her crimes.

She pleaded guilty to three data protection offences: two counts of using the police computer to obtain personal information without the permission of her controller and one charge of disclosing personal data, again without permission of her controller, at the force’s Carleton Hall HQ near Penrith.

Richard Archer, prosecuting, said Fowler worked as a call-handler with the force since 2014, her primary duty being to dispatch the appropriate emergency service personnel to incidents.

Along with colleagues, she had clear instructions to only ever use the police computer for legitimate police purposes. She also knew it was illegal to disclose personal data without her manager’s consent. “In May 2019, she began a relationship with Maverick Charters,” said the prosecutor.

“She knew he had been in trouble with the police.” She also later wrote to Charters while he was in prison.

Mr Archer said: “Throughout the whole of May 2019, and in particular on May 4 and May 17, when she made searches [for] his name, she was doing so not for police purposes but because she was researching him, his family and their associates.”

The barrister outlined also how a woman had called Cumbria Police to allege being the victim of a sex offence.

Fowler knew the accused man. She took a screenshot of the computer log recording the woman’s call and sent it to somebody.

“That screenshot clearly identified the man who was the subject of the complaint,” said Mr Archer. The woman’s address was also in the screenshot.

Steven Reed, for Fowler, said: “She’s at a loss to explain what she did, but she is clearly remorseful.”

Recorder Nicholas Clarke QC told Fowler: “You were well aware that the information could only be accessed for proper police purposes. You chose to begin a relationship with a criminal – one who had been and was in trouble with the police; and you looked him up on the police computer.”

The Recorder imposed fines and costs of £4,570, noting how her earlier denials meant she was suspended from work, allowing her to pocket £22,000 for ‘doing nothing’ over 14 months. Fowler will serve two months in jail if she fails to pay her fine.