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A detective constable found guilty of gross misconduct would have been dismissed if she had still been in the police force, a hearing has ruled.

Celia MacDonald, 49, retired from Sussex Police four days before a panel found she had failed to adequately investigate a claim of child abuse.

The gross misconduct hearing found her failures were due to a breach of standards of professional behaviour.

She had been based in the safeguarding investigations unit at Horsham.

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The hearing was told she had been investigating allegations of sexual abuse against children within a family in West Sussex, but had decided there was no criminality and did not record a crime or undertake any further investigation.

The case was handed back to social services but came to light again a year later, leading to an investigation into her actions by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Det Supt Steve Boniface, head of Sussex Police's Professional Standards Department, said: "DC MacDonald's failure to perform her duty correctly potentially put vulnerable people at risk, although fortunately this case did come back to our notice and remains under investigation."