New Year Honours for three at Essex Police

Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington and Detective Chief Inspector Danny Stoten receive Queen’s Policing Medals, while Police Constable Dawn Wood receives a British Empire Medal.

As Co-Chair of the Essex Resilience Forum, Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington has been instrumental in coordinating the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing together senior colleagues from organisations from across Greater Essex to work together and to make sure that everyone who needed help received it.

Chief Constable Harrington joined Essex Police in 2017 after 27 years of service with the Metropolitan Police Service.

Mr Harrington became Chief Constable of Essex in 2018. He is the National Police Chiefs Council lead for public order and public safety, advising policing nationally and working closely with government.

Mr Harrington said: “I’m deeply honoured to be awarded the Queen’s Policing Medal given the amazing work of colleagues in Greater Essex and across the UK in such testing times.

"I am also immensely grateful for the support and hard work of all the people I have been privileged to work alongside.”

DCI Danny Stoten during the filming of Hunting the Essex Lorry Killers (Image: Essex Police)

DCI Stoten, who is also receiving a Queen's Policing Medal, led the investigation into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese men, women and children found in a lorry in Grays.

Eight men were convicted after a Europe-wide investigation which involved officers from the UK, France, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland.

The investigation was awarded ‘Senior Investigating Officer Team of the Year’ by the National Police Chiefs’ Council Homicide working group.

It was the subject of the recent BBC documentary Hunting the Essex Lorry Killers.

DCI Stoten served as the Senior Investigating Officer on a number of other high-profile cases including the murder of Courtney Valentine-Brown that featured in the BBC television series Murder 24/7, the murder of 19-year-old Fabian Kacica in Southend, and the tragic death of Summer Grant on a bouncy castle in Harlow.

DCI Stoten has also run a boxing programme to help deter young people from joining gangs, and his charity boxing events have raised more than £160,000 for disabled children.

He said: “To get this recognition at the end of my career is an absolute honour. I’m humbled by it.

"The quality of work that my team put into murder investigations led to a conviction rate just short of 100% when we got to court, which shows how right we get it.

“I’ve dealt with tragic deaths, the motivation is always to achieve justice for the victim’s families and you want to make the people who committed horrendous crimes face justice as well. It’s an honour to be given the responsibility to investigate those crimes.”

Marine Unit PC Dawn Wood on patrol in Essex (Image: Essex Police)

Marine Unit Police Constable Dawn Wood has been awarded a British Empire Medal.

Best known for completing a solo row of the Atlantic to highlight the problem of plastic pollution, PC Wood recorded the second-fastest time by a woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in February 2019 when she completed the 3,000-mile journey from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 53 days, battling raging seas and howling winds to raise more than £20,000. She was named fundraiser of the year by the Marine Conservation Society.

PC Wood has visited more than 50 schools and community groups to share her story and promote conservation and awareness of plastic pollution.

In 2023 plans to complete another charity feat as part of a four-woman team rowing the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Hawaii.

The New Year Honours List 2022 includes 50 police staff from across the country.

Martin Hewitt, Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “The awards highlight the commitment and hard work of policing to protect and keep our communities safe all year round and everyone should be rightly proud to be recognised in this way.”