An obsessed former police officer who caught his wife having sex with a married colleague in a car park has narrowly avoided jail after being convicted of stalking.
Gavin Harper, 45, found Stephanie Glynn, 40, and her lover Andrew McLullich, 42, exterior the hardware store in Birkenhead, Merseyside, UK on February 16, 2021, after secretly putting a tracker on his wife’s car.
He slowly crept as much as the car and used his mobile phone to record the lovers, who have been bare from the waist down, earlier than allegedly shouting: ‘I’ve got you on movie sh***ing my wife.’
The dad-of-two was discovered responsible of aggravated stalking, together with secretly bugging Ms Glynn’s automobile, listening to her conservations, tracking her actions and taking her phone with out permission.
He was additionally accused of assaulting Mr McLullich, a Merseyside Police Inspector, however was cleared of injuring the officer at Liverpool Crown Court as he claimed he only struck the policeman in self-defence.
Prosecutors mentioned it was Harper’s conviction was the top of the marketing campaign of ‘obsessive, intrusive and undesirable behaviour’ in opposition to Ms Glynn from December 2020 to February 2021.
Harper and Ms Glynn met as Merseyside Police officers and have been in a six-year relationship earlier than they married in 2018 however she left the family house in December 2020 after she grew near her work mentor Mr McLullich, an appearing inspector on the time and formerly her supervising sergeant.
Giving proof, Harper mentioned he wished ‘simple proof’ of the affair, which he mentioned Ms Glynn had persistently denied.
His intention was to pass the video to police as evidence of two serving officers having an inappropriate relationship during Covid lockdown restrictions, he mentioned.
On Monday, Judge David Potter sentenced Harper to 2 years in jail, suspended for 2 years.
The decide instructed him he would have confronted rapid custody however for the numerous impact that imprisonment would have had on his aged mother and father and youngest son
Harper’s legal professionals instructed the court that he would lose his safety job if jailed and can be unable to make his mortgage funds. His mother and father, whom he informally cared for, would ‘not be capable of cope’ and his son must quit his college research.
Choose Potter instructed Harper:
‘I’m positive you turned obsessed to the point of criminality in stalking Stephanie Glynn to supply evidence of her affair to weaponise that in opposition to her for having that affair, and also you additionally turned decided to destroy the profession of Andrew McCulloch.
‘In that obsession the feelings, embarrassment and ache felt by Stephanie Glynn have been collateral damage. You have been extra involved about your own feelings and a raging sense of injustice.’
He mentioned the occasions at Screwfix ‘do no credit to any of the people concerned’ and the incident was ‘rash, silly, egocentric and unprofessional’.
Choose Potter went on:
 ‘I’m positive it has haunted them (Ms Glynn and Mr McLullich) and can proceed to hang-out them for a few years.’
However he mentioned their acts have been ‘made worse’ by Harper filming them on his cell phone.
He mentioned: ‘It was a further gross instance of stalking designed to maximise their humiliation to your benefit. Your conduct was meant to maximise worry or misery.
‘You resorted to stalking out of a way of vengeance for being the sufferer of an affair. I’m positive the misery induced to your sufferer has been very severe.’
However he added that there was ‘one other aspect’ to the defendant who had no earlier convictions, and had suffered mental trauma himself.
Harper had been recognized with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his Military service within the King’s Regiment and the Royal Army Police – before he joined Merseyside Police in 2001.
