Crooked police call handlers jailed after leaking secret info to their criminal boyfriends and tipping one off about raid

Two former Derbyshire Police call handlers have been jailed after accessing confidential police information involving their partners, with one of them also passing sensitive details to her boyfriend.

Jessica Fitzhugh and Ellie-Mae Doherty, both 22, were sentenced at Leicester Crown Court, where Doherty received an 11-month prison term and Fitzhugh was jailed for four months.

The court heard that both women accessed police systems for information relating to men with whom they were in relationships and who were involved in criminal activity. Doherty had been working for Derbyshire Police for only three months when she disclosed information to her boyfriend about a planned police drug operation.

Her actions were uncovered after investigators found a message on her partner’s phone which read: “My bird who works at Ripley police got into work and texted me to ring Stirch but was five minutes too late.” Sentencing the pair, Judge Timothy Spencer KC described them as “naive” 19-year-olds at the time of the offences and referred to them “loosely” as “girlfriends of two undesirable young men”.

“Regrettably and for reasons that now you will find impossible to rationalise, you both flaunted the clear training, the clear direction and the clear guidelines you were given by the Derbyshire Police,” the judge said. “In your case Ellie-Mae Doherty it went further because the information you accessed was clearly passed on in two distinct ways at two distinct times.”

The court heard that Fitzhugh joined Derbyshire Police in January 2023, aged 19, initially working as a call handler before becoming a dispatcher. She later referred her friend Doherty for a position with the force, and Doherty joined as a call handler in September 2023. The pair had previously met while working at McDonald’s.

Both women underwent what the court heard was “intense” vetting before joining the force and were required to read and sign declarations stating they had no contacts who were “engaged in criminal activities”. Prosecutor Helen Rodger told the court that both women were in relationships with men involved in crime and should have recognised that these were “disclosable associations”.

In addition to providing her boyfriend with information about the planned drug operation, Doherty shared details concerning a fight in which another man had smashed a window, the court heard. Fitzhugh, meanwhile, accessed information about incidents during the spring of 2024 for what the judge described as “idle curiosity”.

The two women sat apart in the dock during sentencing and were accompanied by members of their families. Judge Spencer suggested their relationship with each other may also have been affected by the case, saying their “friendship has not survived this case”.

“I have little doubt that it will haunt you for the rest of your days,” he added. Commenting on positive character evidence submitted on behalf of the defendants, the judge said: “It’s impossible to recognise the young women who I read about, with such positive qualities, in the women who committed these offences.”

Both women were charged in April following an investigation led by the Independent Office for Police Conduct after conduct referrals. Doherty was subsequently jailed for 11 months, while Fitzhugh was sentenced to four months in prison.