Police officer dubbed 'PC Predator' jailed after having sex with crime victim
A police officer who had sex with a burglary victim while on duty - and was referred to as "PC Predator" by her - has been jailed.
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Stuart Trentham, 41, was jailed for 18 months on Wednesday by the same judge who sent him to prison for nine months earlier this year for an "almost identical" offence.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Trentham was a South Yorkshire Police officer who responded to a report of burglary in 2020, during the pandemic lockdown.
Prosecutor Joseph Bell said the officer began to exchange increasingly "flirtatious and sexualised" messages with the woman complainant.
Mr Bell said they then had consensual sex when Trentham attended at her house.
But the prosecutor said the woman "saved his number on her mobile phone as Pc Predator".
Mr Bell said the woman's friend encouraged her to report the matter to the police at the time but she was worried about alienating her local police.
He said it was only after she saw a documentary about the Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard in 2021, that she decided to make a complaint.
He said she was finally prompted by the publicity which surrounded Trentham's jailing for nine months in February for sending inappropriate messages to a vulnerable woman after she reported that sexual images of her had been posted on the internet without her consent in 2022.
'Grotesque breach of trust'
On Wednesday, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC jailed father-of-three Trentham, who appeared in court on bail, for a further 18 months.
He told him: "You abused the responsibility reposed in you.
"Police officers have a high position in society and are an essential component of a civilised country.
"The public place confidence in a police officer to do the right thing and behave with propriety.
"You betrayed that trust and you have betrayed that trust now twice."
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The judge said: "This is a grotesque breach of trust by a police officer."
He told him: "You are a disgrace to the police force."
Judge Richardson said: "It must be made clear that if anyone indulges as a police officer in this form of misconduct, they fall to be punished.
"There has to be an element of deterrent."
The judge said: "Your conduct twice over in almost identical circumstances is outrageous."
Earlier, Curtis Dunkley, defending, said his client had struggled serving his prison sentence earlier this year as a former police officer, saying it was a "living hell".
Mr Dunkley said Trentham, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, had autism and suffered with PTSD.
The defendant admitted misconduct in a public office when he appeared in court on Wednesday.
He sat in the dock wearing a blue suit and with his head in his hands.
Trentham resigned from South Yorkshire Police in 2023.