A senior Metropolitan Police officer sued the force for discrimination after claiming bosses had exposed the fact he was a sex addict.
Jeffrey Boothe, who represented the force at a chief police officers’ conference abroad and whose work involved “planning and implementing initiatives” to increase the number of women in the Met, admitted paying for sex.
At an employment tribunal, the officer accused Scotland Yard of leaking his condition to the media, causing him stress and anxiety and leaving him with “a strong feeling of being persecuted”.
In May 2023, it was revealed that an unnamed “high-flying” officer with a £100,000-a-year salary package had been allowed to keep his job despite using prostitutes, a decision that caused controversy in the London Assembly.
In March this year, Mr Boothe launched his discrimination case against the Met.
A hearing in central London was told the grounds for his original claim consisted of a diagnosis from a doctor of psychology who founded an association to treat sexual addiction back in 2015.
As part of his complaint, Mr Boothe stated that his “ex-partner knew that [he] was suffering from a sex addiction, which had led to him using prostitutes”, the tribunal was told.
He claimed that the alleged leak to the press by the Met of his sex addiction was “unfavourable treatment”.
After his initial claim was refused, Mr Boothe had tried to argue his “disability” fell under the umbrella term of suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), the tribunal heard.
Case dismissed
His case has now been dismissed by a judge who ruled he had lied about OCD after learning he would have “serious difficulties relying on his alleged sex addiction as a disability”.
The latest hearing was told his sex addiction was a consequence of his OCD. Rejecting the latest claim, Employment Judge Pavel Klimov said: “[Mr Boothe] relies on OCD as the relevant mental impairment.
“The only evidence before me as to the existence of the alleged impairment is his say-so in his disability impact statement.”
According to reports last year, payments of hundreds of pounds to sex workers by the unnamed officer were uncovered when anti-corruption officers from the force’s professional standards unit seized his phone over an unrelated matter, which was later dropped.
Instead of going before a gross misconduct board where he could have been sacked, he was given “words of advice”, the lowest form of censure.
He kept his job in 2019 after agreeing to treatment for sex addiction.
