Jason Grafham

Introduction

Jason Grafham was a detective sergeant with the Metropolitan Police who was placed on the police barred list after a misconduct panel found proven eight allegations of sexualised and discriminatory behaviour towards female colleagues, together with the improper retention and display of graphic crime-scene photographs of murder victim Sally Anne Bowman. Grafham, a former DS, had already left the Metropolitan Police by the time of the hearing, which ruled that his conduct amounted to gross misconduct and that dismissal without notice would have been the only proportionate and appropriate outcome had he still been serving.

Background Information

Grafham served as a detective sergeant with the Metropolitan Police, the rank and role that placed him in day-to-day working relationships with the colleagues at the centre of the case. The conduct found proven spanned remarks made to multiple women in the workplace over time, alongside a separate thread of conduct involving material from the 2005 murder investigation of Sally Anne Bowman, an 18-year-old who was raped and murdered in Croydon in one of the most high-profile cases of its decade. The case reached a misconduct hearing after the force investigated, and by the time it was determined Grafham was no longer a serving officer.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Misconduct findings, not criminal convictions. The findings below come from a Metropolitan Police misconduct panel chaired by Commander Paul Trevers, which found the allegations proven on the balance of probabilities. They are regulatory adjudications rather than court judgments, and no criminal charge against Grafham is reported in the sources cited here.

The panel heard that Grafham told one colleague he had struggled during a mindfulness session because he had been trying to look up her skirt, and that the same woman was later given a Christmas card containing a sexually explicit handwritten message, which she said left her feeling disgusted and embarrassed as she opened it in front of her staff. He told another female colleague she would “look like a plasterer’s radio” after a discussion about work at her home; when she declined a concert invitation because of a broken foot, he called her a “stupid bint” and told her the VIP tickets included a seat, later suggesting she would be “wanking from home” after looking at her work calendar. A third colleague, bending beneath her desk to plug in a heater, was told he had not brought his bike with her — a remark she understood to refer to the size of her buttocks. He also made a remark linking a male colleague’s shirt to being gay.

Alongside the comments, the panel found Grafham kept papers and graphic crime-scene photographs from the 2005 murder of Sally Anne Bowman years after the investigation had closed, with no policing reason to possess or display the material, and showed photographs of Ms Bowman’s body to other officers. Documents and photographs connected to the investigation were later recovered from his desk area. In total, eight allegations were proven, covering the sexualised and discriminatory comments and the improper retention and display of the murder photographs. One further allegation — that he had used a mock Welsh accent while making a sexual remark about a Welsh colleague — was not proven, and remains an unproven allegation. The panel found the proven conduct breached the professional standards relating to discreditable conduct; authority, respect and courtesy; and equality and diversity, and amounted to gross misconduct.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Commander Paul Trevers, who chaired the hearing, found that dismissal without notice was the only proportionate and appropriate outcome for conduct of this kind. Because Grafham had already left the Metropolitan Police, the panel instead placed him on the police barred list, the College of Policing register that permanently excludes him from working in policing or allied law-enforcement roles. The case was reported in August 2026 by Misconduct999, the specialist tracker of police misconduct proceedings, under a headline quoting one of his own remarks back at him. The sources report no public statement from Grafham and no appeal against the outcome.

Current Status

Grafham is a former police officer whose name is on the barred list, preventing any future employment in policing. The gross misconduct finding is recorded against him as a formal regulatory adjudication: eight proven allegations spanning sexualised and discriminatory workplace comments and the retention and display of murder-scene material, with one allegation not proven. He was never charged with a criminal offence in connection with the conduct, according to the available sources, and the finding rests on the civil standard of proof applied at the misconduct hearing.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The barred-list placement closed off whatever remained of Grafham’s policing career and any prospect of law-enforcement work elsewhere, and attached to his name a finding that combined workplace harassment of female colleagues with the misuse of material from a murdered teenager’s case file — the second element being the kind of conduct that has repeatedly driven public demands for forces to purge officers unfit to hold vetting clearance. For the colleagues who gave evidence, the outcome marked the end of a process in which their accounts were tested and accepted over his. The panel’s ruling that only dismissal would have been proportionate signals how the Met now weighs accumulated sexualised misconduct, even conduct that stops short of physical offending.

Sources

• Misconduct999, “‘Wanking From Home’ Detective Jason Grafham Barred After Showing Sally Anne Bowman Murder Photographs” — source