A police officer faces losing his job after posting a photo of his ex-wife on a swingers’ website leaving her feeling like she’d been “touched by a thousand men”.
Andrea Church burst into tears after finding out about the image during a work Christmas party and was later “clawing her own skin off” in the shower.
Former spouse PC Alan Friday, 42, from Halewood, Liverpool, used the fully clothed image of Ms Church from her Facebook page under username ”Sexy Scouser” on Fabswingers.
The image was spotted on the site by a family friend who recognised Ms Church and alerted her relatives, Bolton Crown Court heard.
Friday, a dog handler for Cheshire Police, rang his ex-wife while she was in a taxi with her boss and confessed “I have done something wrong, I am going to lose my job and the dogs will be taken off me,” she told the court.
He then bombarded her with nuisance calls and emails in a bid to stop her reporting him, she said.
Ms Church relived her ordeal as the disgraced constable lost an appeal against his conviction for harassment.
”Regardless of whether I am clothed or not, you do not do that,” said Ms Church, who is in her 40s. ”I was clawing my skin off in the shower that day as I felt violated, like 1,000 people had touched me.
”I didn’t think he could violate me like that.”
She continued: “My confidence was badly hit. You do not do that to someone and take their identity.”
The court heard the couple had been married for four years during which Friday posted another picture of Ms Church on the swingers website. They divorced in 2017 due to his infidelity.
Ms Church told the the hearing after finding out Friday had been cheating on her she went through “various states with him” in which he would continually ring her.
She said he would often turn up at her house “kicking and screaming”, as well as following her in his car, which she handled for the “sake of my family and myself”.
Ms Church first learned about the picture being posted in December 2019, but after telling Friday she’d “sort it”, he kept ringing and emailing until her boss agreed to take her phone, she told the court.
“My manager then went to the toilet and I took the phone out of her bag and rang my sister asking if she could come and get me,” she explained.
“After I had been in the shower the front door bell was going and my sister told me to stay in the bathroom as she feared it was him. She saw him through the glass. I felt scared when he came to the door.”
Ms Church’s sister Hayley Church told the court she was “screaming, sobbing and going ‘how can he do this to me'” before Friday arrived at the front door, and rang her repeatedly when she wouldn’t let him in.
The police officer told the hearing his posting of an image of his ex-wife on the site in 2016 was “consensual” and did not lead to their divorce.
“After we divorced there was consistent contact every day,” he continued. “It was hourly, daily, constant. The main aspect of the contact was her wanting to restart the relationship.
”She struggled with the divorce and the breakdown of the relationship, and wanted to get back together and give us another go.”
Referring to posting the second photo, he said he had pretended to be a woman called Laura and “didn’t expect to see someone who knew me”.
Judge Mr Recorder Andrew Nuttall dismissed the appeal and said Friday was not a credible witness.
He told Friday: “You said all the other witnesses were liars and dispute all the evidence.
”We are satisfied that you emailed and called her, and went to her address several times. You caused her great alarm and distress, and left her feeling humiliated. ”
Friday will have to pay a further £620 in costs for the appeal.
Last month he was made subject of a two-year community order and ordered to complete 100 hours unpaid work and a Building Better Relationships programme.
His iPhone and laptop was ordered to be forfeited and destroyed and he was banned from contacting Ms Church under the terms of a two year restraining order.