LIVE USA 2DAY

Detective mother-of-two, 44, facing sack for breaking wind on duty, asking colleague if he wanted affair with 'fatter, ugly, older woman' and calling motorist 'a c***' as she arrested him says it was just workplace banter

• Detective Constable Claire Fitzpatrick is fighting to save job in Gwent Police
• The mother-of-two says behaviour was 'culture of banter' and was in 'jest'
• She told a hearing she would often use silly voices 'like the character Borat' 
• Fitzpatrick denies 25 counts of inappropriate behaviour
• A female detective is facing the sack for breaking wind on duty and asking a junior officer if he wanted an affair with a 'fatter, ugly, older woman'.
  Foul-mouthed Detective Constable Claire Fitzpatrick, 44, is accused of repeatedly using the C-word and telling one motorist he was 'driving like a c***'.  
  Det Con Fitzpatrick is fighting to save her job at a misconduct hearing by saying her antics were part of 'a culture of banter' inside her village police station in Bedwas, south Wales.
  She told the police force disciplinary hearing that she would often speak in silly voices 'like the character Borat' and would use the phrase 'Rather out than in'. 
  Gwent Police officer Fitzpatrick, who had been promoted to a temporary sergeant, is accused of 25 counts of inappropriate behaviour, amounting to gross misconduct.
  She insists that swearing 'was just the nature of the place' and that the C-word 'had replaced the F-word as the swear word of choice'. She denies misconduct after 22 years service in the Welsh force.
  Mother-of-two Fitzpatrick allegedly asked a male PC if he had a girlfriend and whether he wanted an affair with 'an older woman'.
  

  +4

  Det Con Fitzpatrick is fighting to save her job at a misconduct hearing by saying her antics were part of 'a culture of banter' inside her village police station in Bedwas, south Wales
  When he said no, she allegedly replied: 'I'll be gentle, I promise.'
  But Fitzpatrick insisted she was joking and told the panel: 'I met the officer a couple of months before. There was a bit of banter.
  'I don't know how the conversation started but we started speaking about whether he had a girlfriends or children.'I said: "Well if you ever fancy an affair with a fatter, ugly, older woman who wears glasses I have a number."
  The junior officer responded 'No thank you' to which  Fitzpatrick 'pretended to throw up in her mouth'. 
  Fitzpatrick said: 'I thought instantly that I had said the wrong thing at the wrong time. I went over to him, put my hand on his shoulder and said that I didn't mean it, that he didn't know my sense of humour and that I was sorry.
  

  +4

  Bedwas Police station is pictured where Fitzpatrick admitted breaking wind outside the sergeant's office at the station - but said: 'It wasn't deliberately'
  'He kind of acknowledged that. He knew I wasn't serious.'
  She also admitted breaking wind outside the sergeant's office at the station - but said: 'It wasn't deliberately'.
  She said: 'I would joke about it. Sometimes I would speak like the character Borat, or use a silly voice to say "Rather out than in".'
  The misconduct hearing at Gwent Police Headquarters in Cwmbran was told Fitzpatrick would regularly swear and once arrested a motorist telling him: 'You're driving like a c***'.
  She told the panel: 'The officer with me said "Sergeant, you can't say that to him."
  

  

  Mother-of-two Fitzpatrick allegedly asked a male PC if he had a girlfriend and whether he wanted an affair with 'an older woman'
  'I took a deep breath with my head in my hands, and said I'm sorry to the driver.
  'The driver also apologised for his driving and his manner towards us.'
  Fitzpatrick also asked another woman officer if she 'had any cream for thrush' while inside the packed police station.
  She accepted saying it but denied it was done in a 'bullying' manner.
  She said: 'I wasn't suffering from thrush at the time, so I wasn't asking her some literally.
  'It was just another example of stupid, inappropriate things being said.'
  Fitzpatrick - who has been a detective for 12 years - denies bullying and inappropriate behaviour.
  

  +4

  Fitzpatrick also asked another woman officer if she 'had any cream for thrush' while inside the packed police station
  Her representative, Nick Gedge, asked her whether she engaged in inappropriate and offensive behaviour.
  She replied: 'That isn't an activity that I engage in.'
  The panel also heard officers and colleagues had complained about Det Con Fitzpatrick's frequent use of the same four-letter C-word around Bedwas police station.
  'That was just the nature of the place,' said Det Con Fitzpatrick.
  'It replaced the F-word as the swear word of choice.'
  The hearing continues on Thursday.