Top cop failed to disclose 'threesome' voyeurism probe and abuse allegations to South Yorkshire Police

A senior South Yorkshire Police officer ‘slipped under the radar,’ moving from police force to police force, in spite of two criminal investigations being launched against him for allegations including coercive and controlling behaviour towards multiple partners, voyeurism, threats to kill, using violence and criminal assault.

Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Boulter failed to disclose the criminal investigations during vetting procedures carried out when he left Northants Police to join Lincolnshire Police in 2015 and did the same again when he moved to South Yorkshire Police in 2019. He also omitted to declare his gambling addiction, and life-long friendship with a career criminal who has a lengthy criminal record of over 50 offences and has served at least three custodial sentences.

After making initial denials, the officer was due to answer to seven serious allegations arising from such conduct during a misconduct hearing beginning today (Monday, August 7, 2023). However, he resigned from his position with South Yorkshire Police last night - on the eve of the case against him being opened - and opted not to attend.

Officer admits all of the alleged conduct

Speaking on his behalf, Mr Boulter’s barrister, Richard Ohme, said his client now admitted to all of the conduct outlined in the seven allegations, which span a 20-year timeframe running from October 1999 to October 2019, and did not wish to dispute any of the ‘particulars’. 

The case against Mr Boulter was opened in his absence by John Beggs KC on behalf of the appropriate authority (AA), South Yorkshire Police. Mr Beggs told the hearing that the case ‘is, unhappily, a story of repeated failures by the police forces Northants Police, Lincolnshire Police and South Yorkshire Police’. 

Mr Beggs said: “It can now, with hindsight, be very clearly seen that all three constabularies failed. In respect to Northants Police and Lincolnshire Police, they did not deal properly with allegations of misogyny made to them by six different women. They did not investigate with nuance or attention to detail required.”

One of the six woman alleged that Mr Boulter coerced her into having threesomes that he would watch without the consent of all participants; while another claimed Mr Boulter would degrade her by spitting in her face during sex, and on one occasion, assaulted her and told her his mother and her friends, all of whom are from an ‘estate in Grimsby’, would chop her into little pieces and bury her in her back garden.

Mr Beggs said it is the AA’s case that each one of the seven allegations Mr Boulter has now admitted to, ‘in isolation’ would have justified Mr Boulter’s dismissal, had he not resigned.

Mr Beggs suggested that the failings of the three police forces did not just relate to vetting practices, but also to their inability to bring misconduct proceedings against the officer after the criminal investigations were launched against him by the very police forces he worked for, first with Northants Police, and then Lincolnshire Police.

Misconduct proceedings only launched after anonymous Crimestoppers tip-off

In the case of South Yorkshire Police, Mr Beggs said the force’s vetting department not only had ‘access’ to, but also knew about the two criminal investigations, both of which were dropped.

In the voyeurism investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) deemed there to be an ‘evidentiary insufficiency'; while the other set of allegations were not even referred to the CPS after a determination of ‘insufficient evidence’ by Lincolnshire Police.    

Mr Boulter was not only given clearance to join South Yorkshire Police despite the force’s vetting department being aware of both the criminal investigations, and his failure to disclose them, but he also continued to rise up the ranks quickly. Within two years of joining South Yorkshire Police, he had been promoted from a Detective Inspector to a Detective Chief Inspector, the hearing heard.  

South Yorkshire Police’s misconduct proceedings against Mr Boulter were initiated towards the end of 2021. 

They were only launched after intelligence concerning his conduct was sent anonymously to the Crimestoppers charity, the hearing heard. 

Voyeurism investigation launched after Mr Boulter accused of watching threesome without consent

In documents that went before the misconduct panel, Mr Beggs said a ‘theme of misogyny and abuse of women’ led to the criminal investigations by Northants Police and Lincolnshire Police; and was, in turn, compounded by Mr Boulter’s ‘failures’ to disclose those investigations in vetting forms. 

The hearing heard how Northants Police launched the criminal voyeurism investigation against Mr Boulter in December 2012, following allegations made by a former partner, referred to as Ms B. During the course of the following four months, Mr Boulter was given a notice of investigation concerning the allegation, as well as a ‘lawful order concerning no contact or communication with the relevant complainants’. 

Mr Boutler’s treatment of Ms B is not included within the seven allegations he has admitted to; however, Mr Beggs briefly outlined the details of the alleged voyeurism to the hearing because it formed the basis of one of the criminal investigations he failed to disclose to South Yorkshire Police and Lincolnshire Police.

The case of Ms B, along with that of three other women, referred to as Ms A, Ms C and Ms D, do not form any of the alleged behaviour pertaining this set of misconduct proceedings against Mr Boulter because the panel had previously ruled them to be outside of the panel's jurisdiction.

The hearing was told Ms B reported that Mr Boulter became ‘obsessive’ about threesomes, and eventually coerced her into having them, with other men and women. She claimed he would control ‘every second’ of them. 

“The panel will note the pressure from Daniel Boulter on Ms B, the scripting of operations by Daniel Boulter ‘every second of it’ and Ms B, an erstwhile sexually confident woman - by her own admission - losing the will to resist,” Mr Beggs told the misconduct hearing panel. 

During one of the threesomes, Mr Boulter was alleged to have watched the sexual activity from underneath the dining room table, without the knowledge or consent of at least one of the participants. He was also alleged to have to have watched other sexual encounters Ms B was reportedly coerced into participating in, without the knowledge of two other people involved. 

Mr Beggs said Ms B also told police how Mr Boulter had asked her to ‘list everybody she had slept with’ before him. 

“That list was the turning point where I lost any control and any ability to manage…I didn’t think it would get as bad as it got,” she said. 

Mr Beggs told the hearing that Northants Police’s decision to only proceed with investigating the allegation relating to voyeurism, and failing to act on those concerning ‘coercive control and misogyny’ is ‘perhaps a reflection of the age’. 

“And so it came to pass that the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) decided not to take any action against Mr Boulter and the Northants Police didn’t think it warranted any misconduct proceedings,” Mr Beggs said. 

The CPS decided not to proceed with the voyeurism case in April 2013, but Mr Boulter was interviewed under misconduct caution by Northants Police’s professional standards department in September 2013. However, a report from DS Clancy into Mr Boulter’s behaviour concluded there was ‘no case to answer’.

Mr Beggs stated DC Clancy’s analysis ‘did not properly reflect the case to answer test’ in misconduct proceedings brought against police; and instead re-applied the same ‘realistic prospect of conviction test’ used by the CPS for criminal proceedings, which requires a much higher evidential standard. 

Northants Police also ‘appeared oblivious to the coercive controlling elements at play,’ Mr Beggs said. 

Move to Lincolnshire Police and more allegations of coercive control

Following the conclusion of the investigation against him, Mr Boulter applied to join Lincolnshire Police, and in a vetting form submitted to the force in October 2014, he made a number of false declarations, in that he omitted details of the voyeurism investigation, the hearing heard. This omission forms one of the seven allegations Mr Boulter has now admitted to. Mr Boulter initially claimed he did not believe he had to disclose the investigation while completing his vetting form because the investigation had not been proceeded with, however he has now stepped back from that assertion by virtue of his acceptance of all allegations against him. 

Another of the allegations relates to another partner of Mr Boulter’s, referred to as Ms E, and the coercive control and violence he subjected her to. 

Describing the form that behaviour took, Mr Beggs told the panel: “She alleged that Daniel Boulter inter alia (among other things) belittled and disparaged her, spat in her face during sex, required her to forward messages to other men to him: the panel will note the similarities in the emotional blackmail and control that she describes by Daniel Boulter, compared with previous females, including his furious tempers about trivial perceived slights.”

The hearing was told that Mr Boulter would mock Ms E by referencing the complaint of another of the six women who made allegations against him; and even sarcastically asked if she was going to fill out a DASH form, referring to a risk-based assessment form relating to Domestic Abuse Stalking and Honour-based violence that is still used by the police today. 

Ms E disclosed that Mr Boulter told her about his ‘long-term gambling habit’ during the course of their relationship, only to abuse her goodwill to fund the habit. 

“I now strongly suspect he told me lies about paying off debt, and all the money I gave him, thinking we were working as a team to reduce debt, went on gambling,” she said. 

Ms E also told Lincolnshire Police about a particularly violent incident in which he ‘dragged her out of bed by the arm, dragged her downstairs, whereupon he pinned her against the wall with one hand across her throat and told her how much he hated her, calling her a horrible s**g’. 

During the same incident, Mr Boulter is alleged to have told her that his ‘mother and her friends from an estate in Grimsby would chop her up into little pieces and bury her in the garden’. 

In the hours prior to the incident taking place, Mr Boulter also put her in fear of violence from his criminal friend, referred to in hearing documents as Mr A. 

Ms E said of the incident: “I have never been so afraid in my life…I knew I was in danger, and so I did everything I could to placate him…Danny got on top of me, his face was pressed against mine…I was crying uncontrollably.”

Following a statement provided by Ms E in October 2018, Lincolnshire Police launched a criminal investigation into the allegations, which were categorised as controlling and coercive behaviour, threats to kill, using violence and common assault. 

Just two months later, DCI Kirwan, of Lincolnshire Police, deemed there to be insufficient evidence  to justify prosecuting Mr Boulter for the criminal allegations made by Ms E, and did not even refer the matter to the CPS, the hearing heard. 

'For some reason he had continued to slip under the radar'

In a statement provided in evidence by Ms E, she said: “I should have been able to trust a policeman more than any other person, but actually, it was quite the opposite. It wouldn’t have taken much to discover [Bouldon’s behaviour) but for some reason, he had continued to slip under the radar.”

Another of the allegations refers to a third woman, referred to in documents as Ms F. 

Mr Beggs said Ms F described how at the beginning of her relationship with Mr Boulter, he appeared ‘charming’ but that soon changed and their relationship entered what Mr Beggs termed the same ‘state of toxicity as the previous five females have described’. 

“Ms F describes Daniel Boulter as being emotionally manipulative, shouting at her, calling her a s**t, suggesting she was mental, imposing sex bans, and drinking bans on her, body shaming her and suggesting threesomes,” Mr Beggs said, adding that Ms F also detailed an incident during a holiday to Spain with Mr Boulter, in which he took a taxi she had booked, abandoning her at the side of the road. 

Describing the mental state she was left in following her relationship with Mr Boulter, Ms F said: “Looking back now at that situation, it seems very surreal, but at the time it felt normal. I was conditioned to believe that what he said was true, and my memory of events was correct. He would often refer to the fact he was a DI (detective inspector) and had a very good memory. I didn’t feel I could argue with that, and instead questioned my own recollection constantly.” 

Failure to disclose criminal investigations, gambling addiction and association with career criminal

The rest of the allegations refer to Mr Boulter’s failure to disclose his gambling addiction to Lincolnshire Police and South Yorkshire Police; and his failure to declare his relationship with career criminal, Mr A, or the two criminal investigations previously launched against him in his vetting form to the latter force, which was submitted on Halloween 2019. 

Detailing Mr A’s criminal exploits, Mr Beggs told the hearing he has 54 criminal convictions from 15 appearances, running between 1992 and June 2017, for offences of violence, disorder, drugs and dishonesty. 

When eventually asked about his association with Mr A, Mr Boulter referred to him as his ‘best friend’ and said they had known each other since he was three years old. 

Gambling is regarded as a well-known risk factor for police corruption, and the hearing was told it is now specifically referred to on police vetting forms for that reason, which, Mr Beggs suggested, means Mr Boulter must have knowingly chosen not to disclose his habit. 

DCI Boulter was suspended from South Yorkshire Police in December 2021 following the launch of misconduct proceedings and ‘never went back to work as a police officer,’ Mr Beggs told the hearing. 

Despite Mr Boulter admitting to the conduct laid out in the seven allegations made against him, the panel are still required to determine whether gross misconduct and breaches assessed as breaches of the Standards of Professional Behaviour in respect of Authority Respect & Courtesy, Honesty & Integrity and Discreditable Conduct have been proven. 

They have now retired, and are expected to deliver their findings tomorrow (Tuesday, August 8, 2023).