At the second tribunal it was heard former Det Con Sean Brierley went to Gravity Well Taproom on the evening of 2 July 2025 after being told a suspect at Leyton police station was not yet available to be interviewed.
In video footage from the east London bar, the Metropolitan Police officer could be seen ordering three glasses of white wine over two hours.
CCTV showed Brierley “unsteady on his feet”, “staggering” and “off balance” when he returned to the police station later that evening, the panel heard on 12 February.
A custody sergeant gave evidence that Brierley had “smelt drunk” and other staff reported his speech had been “slurred”, the ruling said.
Panel chair Cdr Katie Lilburn wrote: “The fact that the former officer was so intoxicated that he could not walk straight meant that he was unfit to deal with a prisoner in custody, which was the purpose of him being at the police station.”
Mr Brierley’s colleagues had been so concerned about his state that they had arranged a welfare check at his home later that night and “found him lying in his bed in a pair of boxer shorts, with the duvet pulled off him”, and said he “looked very disoriented and was staring at the ceiling in a glazed manner,” the ruling said.
