Scotland Yard commander who wrote Met’s anti-drugs strategy took LSD and magic mushrooms while off duty and smoked cannabis before breakfast, tribunal hears
- Julian Bennett has earned around £250,000 after being taken off duty
A Met Police commander who wrote the force’s anti-drugs strategy took LSD and magic mushrooms while off duty and smoked cannabis daily before breakfast, his old flatmate has told a misconduct tribunal.
Commander Julian Bennett, who has served with Scotland Yard since 1976, is said to have smoked weed on mornings before going to work, leaving it resembling ‘an Amsterdam coffee shop’.
Sheila Gomes, a senior nurse in a London hospital, claims she paid £640 a month to rent a room in Commander Bennett’s flat but left because she became so infuriated by the daily smoking she could not even hang out her laundry to dry.
She told the panel that the officer was addicted to cannabis and claimed she watched him act aggressively while he reportedly went through withdrawals.
Commander Bennett, who wore a grey suit with black glasses today, is accused of gross misconduct for smoking cannabis, and taking LSD and magic mushrooms while on a holiday in France.
Commander Julian Bennett, who has served in the Met since 1976, is said to have smoked weed on mornings before going to work, leaving it resembling ‘an Amsterdam coffee shop’
He is also accused of failing to provide a urine sample for testing and lying about why he had not done so.
Ms Gomes told the hearing the flat was ‘like an Amsterdam coffee shop’ because of the officer’s alleged activities.
She told the hearing under questioning from Mr Ley-Morgan: ‘It would start early in the morning, before breakfast and before he would leave and go to work.
‘Sometimes when he was arriving at home it was there. I never saw him eat before going to work.’
She said she believed he was a lawyer rather than a senior police officer until after she stopped living with him.
Ms Gomes, who is originally from Portugal, added that she had never seen him in uniform.
The nurse went on: ‘I didn’t like it at all. Why did I have to live in a place where it was just cannabis in the air, I was just trying to breathe oxygen.
‘He (the officer) was the one who was using the cannabis, I will say a few times during the day he would bring it in.
‘If he would go to work (he would do it) at least before going to work and arriving at home.’
She said his behaviour was ‘erratic’ and that he would regularly ask her about her work rota.
She said: ‘He was extremely controlling and he was very anxious.
‘The first thing he would ask me when I was waking up was ”when are you going to work, when are you back, when are you off?”
‘I found him narcissistic and had a lack of empathy towards most citizens I would say. When he was not smoking he was very all over the place.
‘He is still denying it. He is still denying something that I saw in front of me when I was living with him.’
She said her housemate told her ‘look at his age and he is doing drugs. He is very open-minded. He is smoking weed around people who are in their 20s’.
She told the tribunal she had received threatening messages after reporting the allegations but they are not said to have come from the officer.
The officer’s former flatmate told the panel that the officer was addicted to cannabis and claimed she watched him act aggressively while he reportedly went through withdrawals
Mr Ley-Morgan said a drugs test was authorised on July 20 2020, and a day later, in the presence of an assistant commissioner, Mr Bennett was asked to provide a sample.
It was ‘made clear’ the order to give a sample was a lawful order but Mr Bennett refused and said he would resign, the tribunal heard.
He told officers he had been taking CBD (cannabidiol) to treat facial palsy and was worried the sample would come up positive for an innocent reason, the tribunal heard.
An earlier hearing was told he was accessing CBD oil ‘from Holland and Barrett and the like.’
Ms Gomes said she had never seen any evidence of him using CBD oil for this purpose.
The hearing was told the allegations about him taking magic mushrooms on holiday in France and LSD at a party are ‘hearsay’ that Ms Gomes was told by a housemate of hers and the officer’s.
Mark Ley-Morgan KC, representing the Metropolitan Police, said Ms Gomes moved into the flat in October 2019 before leaving at Christmas.
‘Shortly before 10am on December 7 2019 she used her mobile phone to take photographs of a bag of cannabis, cigarette paper, tobacco and lighters lying on a glass table in the flat living room,’ he said.
He said Mr Bennett’s explanation for not providing a sample was ‘nonsensical’ as it would have come up with a much lower reading if it was not being used recreationally.
The senior officer wrote the Met’s drugs strategy for 2017-21 as a commander for territorial policing.
The document, called Dealing With The Impact Of Drugs On Communities, set up plans to raise ‘awareness of the impact of drug misuse’.
Freedom of information requests showed Mr Bennett presided over 74 police misconduct hearings involving 90 officers between June 2010 and February 2012.
Out of the hearings involving Mr Bennett, 56 officers were dismissed – more than three quarters.
He chaired 69 hearings during that time and two officers were dismissed for drugs misuse, the figures showed.
Mr Bennett is accused of breaching the force’s professional standards for discreditable conduct three times, honesty and integrity twice and orders and instructions once.
His actions are alleged to have amounted to gross misconduct.
He denies the allegations and has been suspended on full pay since July 2021, earning around £250,000.
The tribunal continues.
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