A police officer who had sex with a burglary victim while on duty was later referred to as “PC Predator” by her, a court has heard.
Stuart Trentham, 41 and of Wakefield, exchanged “flirtatious and sexualised” messages with the woman and had consensual sex with her while serving with South Yorkshire Police.
Trentham, who resigned from the force in 2023 and who admitted misconduct in public office, was jailed for 18 months by the same judge who sent him to prison earlier this year for an “almost identical” offence.
In sentencing, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told him: “This is a grotesque breach of trust by a police officer.”
Sheffield Crown Court heard how the messages began after Trentham responded to a report of burglary in 2020, during the pandemic lockdown.
Prosecutor Joseph Bell said the officer and complainant later had consensual sex when Trentham attended her house.
Mr Bell said the woman’s friend encouraged her to report the matter to the police but she was worried about alienating her local officers.
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 prompted by the publicity which surrounded Trentham’s jailing for nine months in February.
Earlier, Curtis Dunkley, defending, said his client had struggled serving his prison sentence as a former police officer, saying it was a “living hell”.
Mr Dunkley said father-of-three Trentham had autism and suffered with PTSD.
Judge Richardson told Trentham he was “a disgrace to the police force”.
“The public place confidence in a police officer to do the right thing and behave with propriety,” he said.
“You betrayed that trust and you have betrayed that trust now twice.
“It must be made clear that if anyone indulges as a police officer in this form of misconduct, they fall to be punished.”
Chief Constable Lauren Poultney said Trentham’s criminality went “completely against the standards I expect from officers”.
“He abused his position and displayed poor standards of professional behaviour that do not reflect our values of policing and public service,” she said.
“We will not tolerate anyone within our force who behaves in such a corrupt way, and we do work proactively to look for any displays of behaviour that fall below our expected standards.”
In the previous case for which he served a prison sentence, Trentham had contacted a woman inappropriately after being assigned to investigate her complaint of sexually explicit images being shared online by another party.
He forwarded case material, including the explicit images, to his personal email address, and after the investigation was closed, lied to the victim by telling her he was still working on it.
He then sext sexually suggestive messages to her from his personal mobile phone, although it was established that no physical relationship took place.
Additional reporting by PA Media.
