Dorset Police officer admits to drink driving charge

Detective Superintendent Paul Kessell, 45, admitted the offence which took place on the A352 at Wool, near Wareham, on August 4.

Tom Corke, prosecuting, told Southampton Magistrates’ Court that police had received a report from a concerned member of the public who reported seeing his Peugeot car “driving erratically, described as swerving across the road”.

He said: “Officers are deployed, they find the vehicle driven by the defendant driving along the A352.

“The defendant is compliantly stopped by the officers, found to be smelling strongly of alcohol and unsteady on his feet.”

Mr Corke added the offence was “aggravated by the poor state of driving”.

He said Kessell gave a breath test that gave a reading of 115 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, which is more than three times the legal limit of 35mcg.

District Judge Anthony Callaway adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared on Kessell, who the court heard has “mental health concerns”.

He told the defendant: “I have to disqualify you on an interim basis, please do not drive a car on the road from this very moment.”

Kessell, who lives in the Purbeck area, will be sentenced at the same court on November 5.

Following a misconduct hearing at Devon and Cornwall Police in 2019 where two officers were dismissed for gross misconduct by filming themselves driving at 89mph in a seized car, Kessell criticised their actions.

In his then role as Devon and Cornwall Police’s head of professional standards, Kessell said: “The behaviour displayed by these officers falls well below what the force and the public expect of a police officer.

“Through their actions, they have undermined the public’s trust and confidence in the police force and taken advantage of the responsibility placed on them in their roles.”

Kessell also held a senior role in Dorset Police’s major crime team at the time of the investigation into the death of teenager Gaia Pope in 2017