Copper Adam was supposed to be helping Amy through a difficult time. But did he have an ulterior motive?
A tall, handsome figure in uniform came walking up to me.
‘Amy?’ he smiled. ‘I’m PC Adam Jones, here about your case.’
Immediately, I felt a wave of relief.
Because if anyone needed a knight in shining armour, it was me.
The officer had come to my workplace because, after years living with my physically and emotionally abusive partner, I’d somehow scraped up the strength to kick him out once and for all.
Only my ex had cleared my house of most of my possessions.
Two months on he was still texting me and seemed to know my every move.
Frightened, I’d put in a police complaint.
PC Jones took down the details and seemed to genuinely listen as I talked.
The following day he texted me some information about Victim Support.
But soon he was texting me more often, just asking how I was.
When a message popped up from a number I didn’t recognise one day, it turned out it was PC Jones – or Adam as he told
me to call him – contacting me from his personal number.
He said he accidentally mixed up his SIM cards but our text messages soon got flirty.
Just two weeks after he had first dealt with my case, he suggested he pop in to see me at home.
He finally turned up at 10pm that night, arriving in full uniform and parking his police car right outside.
‘Well at least take off your stab vest,’ I laughed nervously. ‘Otherwise I’ll feel like I’m about to be interrogated!’
Chuckling, he took it off and slung it over a chair and we chatted for a bit before he left.
But on his second visit he took off more than his stab vest…
Before I knew it we were having sex but he warned me, ‘This has to stay a secret.’
I nodded. All
I knew was that I finally felt safe.
I was working during the week as a dental nurse, and as a security guard at weekends. Despite this, all my money seemed to go on bills and keeping a roof over my head.
So skint, some days all I would eat was half a tin of baked beans, one scrambled egg and endless coffee.
I’d dropped from a size 14 to a size six in a matter of months.
Adam felt like the one good thing in my life.
‘If my ex suddenly turned up here, and I called you, would you come?’ I asked him one night. ‘Regardless of whether you were on duty or not.’
‘Well, you know, I’d try and help you out,’ he replied.
It wasn’t a resounding yes, but I didn’t care.
All I knew was that I had a 6ft, well-built copper in my bed who would protect me now.
So my ex could go and take a flying jump.
Only as time went on, it was clear my friendly neighbourhood copper was after one thing – and one thing only.
He’d always turn up at mine at lunchtimes or late at night, chat for 10 to 15 minutes, seduce me, then dash off.
‘I told my colleagues I was just nipping out for a snack,’ he’d wink. ‘I better go and grab something from Tesco to look the part!’
He was using me for sex, while I just wanted him to stick around.
I was conflicted too.
He was working on my case and I didn’t want to muck things up.
Finally though, after a year of no-strings sex, we finally petered out when I moved away and got a new job.
But it was no wonderful fresh start.
The years
of domestic violence I’d endured with my ex – and a sexual assault I’d suffered by someone else when I was just 14 years old – finally caught up with me.
One day I started crying at work at 8.30am and literally didn’t stop until 7.30pm.
It was my mum who came to the rescue. We hadn’t always seen eye to eye, but she flew into action, looking after me, making sure I ate and helping me get back on my feet.
Over time I had counselling and became a mummy to two gorgeous girls.
When my youngest was one – and six years after I’d last spoken to Adam – I got a call out of the blue.
‘Can I ask? Do you know someone called Adam Jones?’ a voice down the line said. ‘He’s currently the subject of an investigation into possible misconduct in office.’
It didn’t surprise me that I wasn’t the only woman he’d been carrying on with, and I gave them a statement as requested and agreed to give evidence in court.
I’d been a victim of domestic violence and Adam had been a police officer.
He was supposed to help me – not sleep with me on the job.
Yes our relationship had been 100% consensual, but it had been obvious how vulnerable I was.
Determined to be a role model for my daughters, I decided to speak out.
In time Adam Jones, 40, of Monkston, Milton Keynes, appeared at Reading Crown Court.
The jury heard he’d been based at Milton Keynes police station and committed offences between 2013 and 2021.
They were told he’d contacted multiple women – including myself – on occasions when there was no policing purpose for him to do so, seeking to pursue a sexual or improper emotional relationship.
Prosecutor James
Bruce told the court that in 2013,
two women had submitted complaints to the police regarding domestic abuse.
Jones had had a sexual relationship with one of the complainants over many years, while he pursued the other.
In 2021, Jones began texting a woman he had arrested before he had even completed her witness statement.
He’d sent personal and sexual messages before the woman went to court and gave her advice about her case.
He later deleted the messages.
The prosecutor went on to describe how Jones had sex while he was on duty.
He said, ‘That is a different class of behaviour because it puts fellow officers and members of the public hypothetically at risk.’
The sexual relationships had all been consensual.
When I gave my evidence I caught a glimpse of him in the dock, pale and puffy-faced, his eyes just staring vacantly ahead.
Jones was found guilty by a unanimous jury verdict of one count of holding a public office and wilfully neglecting to perform duty/wilfully misconducting himself.
He was also convicted by a majority jury verdict of three further counts of holding a public office and wilfully neglecting to perform duty/wilfully misconducting himself.
James Marsland, defending, told the court that Jones lived with significant ADHD issues
and had long suffered with depression and anxiety.
He added that Jones had resigned from his job with Thames Valley Police.
Judge Heather Norton told Jones, ‘It is clear your behaviour had a lasting impact. The consequential harm caused to the police service is profound and malicious.’
Jones was sentenced to two years and six months’ imprisonment.
All the investigating officers in the case were really professional but three months on from court, Adam’s behaviour has still destroyed my faith in people.
I’d been a woman in need,
but Adam had just one thing on his mind.
Now I trust no one.
Amy Reynolds, 39, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
Amy has waived her right to anonymity.