Edward Ryan
Introduction
Edward Ryan is a former sergeant with Avon and Somerset Police who has been barred from working in policing again after a misconduct panel found he behaved in a discriminatory and inappropriate manner while off duty. Ryan was the subject of a two-day misconduct hearing which began on Monday, November 2, 2026, at police headquarters in Portishead, north Somerset. The panel concluded the allegations were proven and amounted to gross misconduct, and ruled that Ryan would have been dismissed without notice had he still been serving — but he had already retired from the force in August 2024, months after the conduct at issue. The consequence that remains to a retired officer is the bar itself: Ryan is now prohibited from working within law enforcement in the future.
Background Information
Ryan served as a sergeant in Avon and Somerset Police until his retirement in August 2024. The conduct that ended his eligibility to serve occurred earlier that year, in April 2024, at a team social event in Bristol where colleagues had gathered outside work. The hearing was chaired by former Assistant Chief Constable Craig Holden, and the force’s Professional Standards Department pursued the case after Ryan’s own colleagues reported what they had witnessed within 48 hours of the event. The case was handled as an off-duty misconduct matter, and Assistant Detective Superintendent Will Thorpe of the Professional Standards Department presented the force’s position at the hearing. The ruling placed Ryan on the police barred list, the College of Policing register that prevents dismissed or sanctioned officers from joining another force in England and Wales.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Allegations. The claims in this section come from a police misconduct panel, which found them proven as gross misconduct. They were never criminally charged and never adjudicated in court. Ryan had already retired before the hearing and the barred-list outcome is an administrative finding, not a criminal one.
At the team social in Bristol in April 2024, Ryan made a transphobic comment during a discussion about a television show, according to the hearing. At the same event he made multiple inappropriate sexualised comments and gestures relating to a woman he knew outside of work. The comments were made in public, in front of colleagues, and those colleagues reported what happened to the force’s Professional Standards Department within 48 hours. The two-day hearing before a panel chaired by former Assistant Chief Constable Craig Holden concluded that the allegations — that Ryan breached the standards of professional behaviour — were proven and amounted to gross misconduct. Because Ryan had retired in August 2024, the panel’s available sanction was the one that applies to former officers: a ruling that he would have been dismissed without notice had he still been serving, and a place on the barred list.
Metro’s report of the hearing matched the force’s account: the transphobic remark came during a conversation about a television programme, and the sexualised comments and gestures concerned a woman Ryan knew outside work, delivered in front of colleagues who reported them within two days.
Public Reaction and Consequences
A/Det Supt Will Thorpe said Ryan’s behaviour and comments “understandably shocked and appalled” the colleagues who were present, and that those officers “did the right thing in reporting what happened” — concerns he said were treated seriously and paved the way for action against a former officer. Thorpe added that the public rightly expect officers to hold the highest standards of professionalism, “this expectation applies equally to a person being on-duty, as well as off-duty,” and that Ryan’s conduct “will inevitably negatively impact the public’s confidence in policing.” The force framed the bar as a message: “We hope the positive action taken by colleagues to report what happened, and the decision to prohibit him from working within law enforcement in future, sends a powerful message that there is no place in policing for anyone who displays discriminatory behaviour.”
The consequences for Ryan are the barred-list entry itself — the end of any possibility of a policing career — and the public record of a gross-misconduct finding that survived his retirement. Because the misconduct was proven at a panel rather than in a criminal court, no criminal consequence attaches to the findings; the case sits in the same category as the growing list of retired and resigned officers barred after hearings they no longer faced as serving officers.
Current Status
Ryan is a retired former sergeant on the police barred list, prohibited from working in policing or law enforcement in the future. The November 2026 hearing was a post-retirement proceeding: its gross-misconduct finding converts what would have been a dismissal into a permanent bar. Neither the force nor Ryan has announced any appeal against the panel’s outcome in the coverage of the hearing.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Ryan’s policing career, which ended quietly with an August 2024 retirement, was retroactively marked by the panel’s finding that he would have been dismissed without notice — the harshest available outcome — had he still been serving. The barred-list entry forecloses any second career in law enforcement anywhere in England and Wales, and the force’s public statement tied the case to officer standards off duty as much as on. For the colleagues who reported him within 48 hours, the outcome validated the reporting path the force explicitly praised; for Ryan, a private event among colleagues became the public record that defines the end of his service.