Northamptonshire Police staff member illegally looked up details of case

Eleanor Reading was at Northampton Magistrates’ Court at the end of May to be sentenced for a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Reading pleaded guilty to causing a computer to perform a function to secure unauthorised access to data, which now means that force misconduct proceedings against her will go ahead.

The 35-year-old, of Catton Crescent, looked up details of an ongoing case that she was not permitted to see.

Northamptonshire Police have declined to say which case was involved and the information was not detailed in the official court record sent to our reporters.

But Reading accessed the details on August 11, 2025 just two days after a high profile murder in Northampton, details of which were not at that time in the public domain.

Reading was given a 16 week prison term, suspended for 12 months, to reflect the breach of trust in public office. The custodial sentence was suspended after magistrates ruled that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. Reading will also have to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £85 and a £154 surcharge.

A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman said: “Reading accessed information about an incident using internal police systems without any policing purpose.

“Following her conviction and sentence, misconduct proceedings will now continue.”

Police civilian investigators are not police officers, but they help to support criminal investigations and have access to sensitive case material as part of their job.

In recent years, the misuse of data by people in public office across the country has become much more prevalent. In the Valdo Calocane triple homicide in Nottingham, the constabulary declined to open a probe into how many police officers had viewed sensitive footage because they were so concerned at the scale of the issue. In the same case, 11 members of NHS staff were sacked after dozens looked up details of the victim’s injuries on hospital systems.

In the Sarah Everard murder case, several police officers were sacked after they too looked up case details without any lawful reason.

And in Lancashire, a police officer was sacked after illegally sharing details of Nicola Bulley’s tragic drowning.