Fireman sacked over Facebook sex scandal
IT WAS the scandal over a firemen’s Facebook ‘straw poll’ which rated which female colleagues would be best in bed. Now there’s been a new development.
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A LOGAN fireman at the centre of a Facebook sex scandal has been sacked.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services announced last night that a 33-year-old officer from the South Eastern region had been dismissed ‘due to behavioural misconduct and sexual harassment’.
The Courier-Mail understands the officer is Jon Wreford, who was criminally charged over a firemen’s Facebook ‘straw poll’ which rated which female colleagues would be best in bed.
Wreford was charged with using the internet to menace, harass or cause offence and faced Beenleigh Magistrates Court in April. But the charge was dropped when prosecutors offered no evidence.
FACEBOOK SCANDAL: Fireman stood down
However, Wreford remained suspended pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings.
A second fireman charged over the sex scandal, Bradley Hindmarsh, appeared in Beenleigh Magistrates Court yesterday charged with using a phone to menace, harass or cause offence.
The charge stemmed from an alleged phone threat to a male fireman in February this year.
The man’s partner, a female firefighter, is understood to have been named by male firemen in the Facebook poll.
The scandal, revealed late last year by The Courier-Mail, sparked a top-level State Government inquiry into alleged sexual harassment and bulling in the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services.
A report found the fire service had a toxic workplace culture that was ‘hostile’ to women.
It led to the resignation of long-serving fire chief Lee Johnson, who was replaced by Queensland Police Service Assistant Commissioner Katarina Carroll.
Hindmarsh, who was charged along with an associate, did not enter a plea when he faced court yesterday.
However, defence barrister Alastair McDougall asked for a long adjournment so he could prepare ‘lengthy submissions’.
The case, which will be handled by Commonwealth prosecutors, was adjourned to August 7.
Hindmarsh declined to comment outside court.
The veteran fireman won three bravery awards for helping rescue a baby girl and her family during the 2011 Grantham floods.
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