A serving police officer who looked up a murder victim’s relationships, medical history and other personal details for his own purposes has been sacked.

A trainee detective constable who also looked up information about ex-Fulford School student Sarah Everard without proper cause would have been sacked had she not already left the police, a police disciplinary hearing decided.

Together with a third Metropolitan Police officer Sgt Mark Harper, PC Myles McHugh and trainee Hannah Rebbeck were found to have committed gross misconduct by the way they had accessed police files about Sarah, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by then-serving PC Wayne Couzens in March 2021.

The tribunal panel decided  that McHugh’s and Rebbeck’s actions were an “egregious breach of the trust”.

McHugh had looked at information about Ms Everard’s medical history, relationships, employment and lifestyle.

The panel said his behaviour was at the “higher end of harm” as he was dismissed without notice for repeatedly accessing the police system on matters which had nothing to do with his duties.

He looked at personal data which was “very sensitive” and “he attempted to discuss what he had seen with his colleagues”, according to panel chairwoman Sharmistha Michaels.

She said he acted out of a “curiosity” about the investigation as he accessed data “extensively and accumulatively” but stopped looking for the information after Couzens was arrested.

After the hearing, the Met said the panel heard that PC McHugh accessed the information while off duty and for a significant period of time, while former DC Hannah Rebbeck was found to have repeatedly accessed sensitive data without any link to her duties.

The panel ruled the breaches of professional standards were so serious that the only appropriate outcome was dismissal.

It also ruled that Rebbeck's actions were also so serious a breach of professional standards she would have been dismissed but she had left the Metropolitan Police before the three-week hearing. 

Couzens, who was part of the police's Parliamentary and diplomatic protection uni tand authorised to carry a gun, is now serving a life sentence without parole for the rape and murder of Sarah.