‘Fellow constable’s data breach caused me to resign from post’
A FORMER St Peter Port constable said he was left shocked after his sensitive data was incorrectly shared by his fellow constable, and it contributed to his resignation.
Dennis Le Moignan, 84, had served the parish for about 14 years, both as a constable and as a douzenier.
Last year he was the senior parish constable, as well as a douzenier.
Mr Le Moignan described his working relationship with then-junior constable Zoe Lihou as 'difficult'. It came to a head last spring, resulting in an Office of Data Protection Authority investigation.
‘[That] was a direct result of a formal complaint made by me against the then-junior constable, who, with a complete disregard for my privacy, circulated without my permission an email to the whole of the St Peter Port douzaine,’ he said.
‘This email contained very sensitive, personal data, which was sent to her in confidence.’
He said the breach had left him feeling rotten.
‘I was shocked,’ he said.
The information was also passed to two people outside the douzaine.
‘When raising the issue with Mrs Lihou, she did not accept she had done wrong, employing excuses, defences and justifications for her actions, leaving me with no alternative but to seek redress via the ODPA.’
The ODPA upheld the complaint against Mrs Lihou as the parish's data controller.
The stress of the incident contributed to Mr Le Moignan’s resignation and he said it had a long-term impact on him.
Mrs Lihou told the Guernsey Press, ahead of the ODPA’s ruling last week, that she felt she had learned from the mistake. That article sparked Mr Le Moignan to come forward, as he felt she had painted an inaccurate picture of events.
‘To see the constable Lihou quoted in the Press being “actually grateful that the incident happened” was astonishing,’ he said.
‘She still does not seem to understand what the effects of her actions have been on me and the entire douzaine.’
He felt the strain had resulted in four more recent resignations from the douzaine. He accepted that there had been issues with the handling of internal data at the douzaine while he was a constable, and he apologised for these issues, but no parishioners’ data had been compromised.
Mrs Lihou declined to comment further on the issue.
