Sussex detective barred for life after sexual texts to junior colleague

Detective Sergeant Sebastian Day, 39, has been barred for life from policing after admitting gross misconduct for sending sexually explicit text messages to a junior colleague that suggested they meet for sex on a Brighton beach.

A disciplinary panel on Monday found Day’s conduct amounted to behaviour that could be seen as "harassing and offensive," and he has been forced to resign and told he can never rejoin the force.

The panel heard that the messages were exchanged around a leaving party on April 23, 2021. As his junior colleague, identified in hearing documents as "Female A," prepared to attend the event, Day — who was her supervisor at the time — sent a series of sexually explicit texts including: "We could stay in a hotel, but only for a couple of hours as we both have someone to go home to." He later wrote he had "got married" at The Grand on Brighton seafront and suggested alternatively "the back of an Uber if it's really classy," and proposed she might "meet me on the seafront on the way home." Female A replied to some messages, described him as a "cheeky git" and attempted to end the exchange; in a statement to the hearing she said she felt "uncomfortable" with how the texts escalated.

Day admitted gross misconduct at the hearing and the panel imposed a prohibition order preventing him from ever serving as a police officer again. Panel chairman Arwel Jones said the behaviour amounted to harassment and was offensive.

The decision follows an earlier, separate disciplinary and criminal episode in Day’s career. In 2012 he was dismissed from Sussex Police for gross misconduct after allegedly kicking a man in the head during an arrest in Brighton. A court later cleared him of assault and he was reinstated after an appeal to the Home Office.

The recent disciplinary hearing was convened at a misconduct forum and considered the impact of Day's messages on the junior officer and on public confidence in the police. The panel's ruling leaves Day unable to return to policing and records his forced resignation.

Sussex Police and other authorities were not cited as making further comment in the hearing record. The prohibition order means Day cannot seek re-entry to any police force in the United Kingdom.

The case highlights scrutiny of misconduct by senior officers and the disciplinary mechanisms that operate independently of criminal proceedings. The panel’s finding rests on accepted standards of professional behaviour expected between supervisors and subordinate staff, particularly in matters involving sexualised conduct and workplace power dynamics.