Scott Chilton, the former chief constable of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight police, was found guilty of gross misconduct after a misconduct hearing over sexual relationships with two subordinate officers. Michelle Skeer said he showed a sense of entitlement, dishonesty and lack of integrity.
The panel said his conduct left him barred from becoming a police officer again. It also found he should have declared the relationship with Officer B and that he had repeatedly denied the relationship with Officer A.
Michelle Skeer’s ruling
Skeer, chairing the panel, said Chilton’s behaviour was marked by “persistent dishonesty and lack of integrity”. She said he was “in the highest position of trust as the most senior officer in the constabulary and ought to have known the foreseeable risk of harm by having a covert relationship”.
She also said he “repeatedly lied by act and omission about both his relationships with Officer A and Officer B and he knew that this was wrong. His conduct was a serious, deliberate and sustained attempt to mislead … to subvert any negative impact on himself.”
The panel found that Chilton had consensual sexual relations with Officer A when he was a chief inspector or superintendent, and that he engaged in sexual activity with her while on duty. It also found he had a consensual relationship with Officer B beginning within weeks of becoming chief constable.
Officer B and the messages
When the relationship with Officer B came to light, Skeer said Chilton behaved inappropriately and put pressure on her to conceal what had happened. She said there was evidence that he was discussing issues he should not have been discussing with Officer B during WhatsApp message exchanges.
Skeer said Chilton attempted to bully Officer B into keeping quiet by asking her to “delete and double delete” their messages. She also said he asked Officer B not to go to events that his wife would attend.
The panel’s finding drew a line between consent and conduct: the relationships were described as consensual, but it still ruled that Chilton abused his position for a sexual purpose, failed to disclose the Officer B relationship and acted dishonestly throughout. John Beggs KC presented the case against him.
Roger Wood and February 2025
The hearing sat against the backdrop of another disciplinary case involving Roger Wood. In February 2025, a disciplinary hearing concluded that Wood had inappropriate relations with two junior colleagues and would have been dismissed had he not already resigned.
Before his case, Wood said he had “damaging information” about Chilton, and during the proceedings he said Chilton “had affairs”. That earlier case did not alter the ruling against Chilton, but it shows how the conduct of senior officers in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight has been examined through separate proceedings.
Chilton had already retired before the hearing, and the ruling now leaves him outside policing with no route back in. The remaining question is the practical sanction beyond that bar, which the panel did not spell out in the facts released here.
