Stalker sergeant who sent riot van to ex's house banned from policing
A married former police sergeant who stalked his ex lover and falsely reported her for Covid breaches has been banned from working in law enforcement.
Stephen Green, who worked from Shrewsbury police station, "abused his position", according to Chief Constable Pippa Mills, who spoke at Green's accelerated misconduct hearing.
Green was spared jail last year when a judge suspended his prison sentence and now a police hearing has been told he would have been sacked by West Mercia Police had he not quit.
Chief Constable Mills, the force's top officer, said: “The nature of the office of Constable means that all police officers are in a position of trust and authority in relation to members of the public. Former officer Stephen Green abused this position.
“The conviction and the circumstances in this case have discredited West Mercia Police. We expect the highest standards of professional behaviour from all of our officers, both towards members of the public and their colleagues.
“Stephen Green’s behaviour and actions breached the standards of behaviour that are essential in serving our communities, which is why he would have been dismissed from the force had he not resigned and his name has been added to the College of Policing Barred List.”
The barred list means Green can no longer work in any kind of law enforcement in the UK.
Between November 1, 2020 and January 9 last year, he sent messages to his ex and arranged for a bouquet to be sent to her.
He also told another man to report his ex and her new partner for a drink-driving offence, which the third party did.
Green also instructed police officers to carry out checks at the address of his former lover and made two false reports of Covid breaches, using fake personal details.
The 60-year-old, who was married with children, had embarked on a four-year affair with the victim, which ended in August 2020.
But the police officer began stalking her after she started a new relationship, even arranging for a riot van to check out the victim’s home address.
Green also got other police officers – who believed the inquiries to be entirely above board – to carry out address checks at the victim’s homes and the homes of her mother and new partner.
Such was the behaviour of Green, the victim put her house up for sale and moved in with her mother.
Green, who started working part-time at a farm since resigning from the police force, pleaded guilty to one charge of stalking at Wolverhampton Crown Court in July last year. He was handed a six-month jail term, but the judge chose to suspend the sentence for two years.
District Judge Graham Wilkinson, sentencing, said Green was before the court “at a time when there is greater scrutiny than ever on the crimes of serving police officers” and that his involvement of other innocent officers sent on “criminal errands” would knock public confidence in policing.
He added: “We are all too aware of some of the truly awful offences that serving police officers have recently been convicted of and it is important to make the point that every police officer who chooses to offend does further damage to both the reputation of the police generally and public trust."
“Your motives for this offence... were to hurt and harm.
“It is difficult to speculate any motive other than some twisted vengeance.”
Describing the offence as “sinister and sophisticated”, the judge said that even when asked to stop by his ex-lover “you continued”.
“By using your colleagues you undoubtedly left your two victims feeling powerless – it was two people against the might of the police,” he said.
In the end, both the complainant and her partner reported Green to his employer force and an investigation led to him being charged – though he initially denied any wrongdoing in police interview, the court heard.
The judge said Green’s “fall from grace had been spectacular... from a serving police sergeant to a convicted civilian criminal in barely six months”, and praised his victims’ “fortitude”.
