Nowlet chief Robin Williams, 59, praised for his work after the Grenfell Tower disaster, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for possessing an indecent image in November 2019.
She was sacked by the Met after a special disciplinary hearing in March 2020 found her conviction constituted gross misconduct.
However, last year the senior officer successfully appealed the decision to dismiss her following her conviction and was reinstated as a police officer.
In June 2021, the Police Appeal Tribunal (PAT) found that she should not have been dismissed and instead given a final written warning.
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Earlier this month, the Met challenged that decision at the High Court in London, claiming it was “perverse and unreasonable” and that Williams’ dismissal was “the only possible outcome”.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Ms Justice Heather Williams rejected the Met’s bid to overturn the PAT’s decision.
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She said: “The PAT was entitled to regard this as an exceptional case where dismissal for gross misconduct by an employee is not a necessary and proportionate sanction.”
The judge continued: “The PAT concluded that this was the case because of the unique circumstances of the sentence, the officer’s stellar career, the significant impact she had on improving the reputation of MPS as a whole and its assessment that her dismissal would undermine the credibility of in policing some of the communities where MPS struggled to gain credibility.
“It was a permissible conclusion to reach.”
During Williams’ trial at the Old Bailey, jurors heard how she received a video of child abuse via WhatsApp from her older sister, Jennifer Hodge, so police could investigate the footage.
But she failed to report the clip and while the court accepted she did not watch the video, the jury was not convinced she did not know it was on her phone.
Anne Studd QC, for Scotland Yard, previously argued that the PAT placed “too much weight” on Williams’ mitigation and failed to properly assess the seriousness of the sentence.
However, Mrs Justice Heather Williams said: “I do not think there is any merit in the suggestion that the PAT was wrong to take personal mitigating circumstances into account when assessing seriousness.”
Scotland Yard also contested the reinstatement of Detective Constable Asweina Gutty, who was dismissed following her conviction for assaulting her then partner before being given a final written warning following an appeal to the PAT.
However, Ms Justice Heather Williams also rejected that challenge, finding that the PAT was “entitled to conclude” that a final written warning was appropriate in the “unusual circumstances of this case”.
Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, said of the Williams case: “I am very pleased to hear this sentence and I hope the Met will allow Robin to continue his career in peace.
“It should never have taken this long and the force must stop prosecuting black officers and staff in a way they would not the majority of our colleagues.”
Following the rulings, a Met spokesman said: “We are aware of the outcome of judicial review proceedings brought by the Metropolitan Police Service in relation to two Police Appeal Tribunal cases.
“The PAT overturned decisions to dismiss Met officers that were made in special case hearings following criminal convictions.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs has initiated judicial review proceedings in both cases. We will now take time to carefully consider the sentences and any next steps.”
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