Topless cop photo email becomes another internet cautionary tale

Adam Turner
Monday, 19 March 2007 10:35

Opinion and Analysis

By sending her boyfriend a topless photo of herself whilst in uniform, policewoman Melissa Scannell has joined Claire "I hadn't swallowed for years" Swire on the list of those who learned the hard way there's no such thing as a private message in the online age.

What started as naughty "get well soon" photo to her boyfriend, who is also a police officer, may now cost Constable Scannell her job after the boyfriend forwarded it to colleagues via Victoria Police's internal mail network. They forwarded it to friends, who forwarded it again and so on until it landed in the inboxes of top-ranking officers and ethical standards department detectives, reports The Age from AAP.

Apparently the department is "examining it to see if an offence has been committed". I wonder how many times they need to look at it to be sure. Better send it to forensics to look at, just in case.

Scannell's big mistake (after trusting her boyfriend) was that she exposed her breasts while in police uniform with her name badge visible in the photograph. The photo was shown on Channel Nine news last night and Scannell reportedly told Channel Nine that the photo was "an error in judgment".

It certainly was an error of judgement, and a bad one at that considering anyone who has ever used the internet knows how quickly these things spread. In 2000 an email swept around the world from Claire Swire to Bradley Chait - who worked at Norton Rose, a law firm in London. Chait felt the need to forward to six mates Swire's passing comment about how much she enjoyed their oral sex. Naturally they forwarded it to people who forwarded it to people and within days Swire was infamous across the internet. An error of judgement in a supposedly private email can haunt you forever.

Now it's Melissa Scannell's turn to become an internet cautionary tale. As Claire Swire discovered, 15 minutes of fame can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

UPDATE: $500 reward fails to capture topless cop email photo

UPDATE: Topless cop email photo exposed as $500 proves too tempting