A police officer has been sacked for sending texts to a friend about the death of Amber Peat.
A public misconduct hearing heard how Mansfield officer PC Samantha Goodwin sent the ‘deeply personal and intimate’ updates about 13-year-old Amber, before the details had been made public.
The officer had also sent information from the ongoing missing persons enquiry to friends and a member of her family.
She was dismissed from the force with immediate effect.
The conduct was a gross abuse of trust
Amber went missing from her home in Mansfield on May 30, after a family argument about doing chores.
She was found hanged in bushes close to her home on June 2.
Police say her death is not being treated as suspicious, and an inquest is due to examine the circumstances surrounding her death.
The hearing at Nottinghamshire Police Headquarters, in Arnold, found Goodwin breached professional standards in other investigations.
Between 2012 and 2015 she sent other text messages to a friend giving information about vulnerable victims, had made racist remarks and sent an image of a victim from a police interview.
Chief Constable Chris Eyre said her actions were a “gross abuse of trust”.
He said: “I have offered my profound apologies to everyone who has been affected by this officer’s unacceptable behaviour.
“A serving police officer is never off-duty as far as their personal and professional conduct is concerned.”
