Shropshire police officer sent Facebook friend request to revenge porn victim, misconduct trial told

West Mercia Police Constable Mark Cranfield, 52, is also alleged to have told the woman “I’m glad I got to see the pictures”, after downloading intimate video given to him as evidence.

He denies committing three counts of misconduct while in public office, including a charge alleging he sent the friend request to the complainant shortly after she left Ludlow police station in Shropshire in 2018.

Cranfield, of Bromfield, near Ludlow, also denies a fourth offence relating to accessing computer records without authorisation.

Opening the Crown’s case on Tuesday, prosecutor Simon Rippon told Birmingham Crown Court the alleged offences came to light in April 2021, when Cranfield’s work phone was examined for reasons entirely unconnected to the case.

Mr Rippon said two photographs of the complainant were found on the work-issue phone, with video of the woman naked and engaging in a sexual act.

Records show the woman was dealt with by Cranfield after going to police to make a statement about the video being shared online, the court heard.

Mr Rippon said: “The prosecution case is he [Cranfield] took an improper sexual interest in her.

“The defendant, plainly acting as a police officer, started to ask very intimate questions about what she was doing and wanted her to share with him graphic details.”

Cranfield is alleged to have been smiling when he told the woman he was glad to have seen the pictures, the jury heard.

The prosecutor said the complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, signed a statement and “by the time she got home about 15 minutes later” Cranfield had sent her a friend request, which she declined.

The officer is then said to have sent further messages asking how the woman was and another saying his sex life with his wife “had gone out of the window”.

The woman then retracted her complaint relating to revenge porn, Mr Rippon said, because “she just didn’t want to deal with this defendant any more”.

In 2019, the jury of four women and eight men was told, Cranfield’s wife found out that he had been messaging the woman and he is alleged to have “begged” the complainant to tell her that “nothing had happened”.

It is also alleged Cranfield, who is no longer a police officer, deleted one of two Facebook accounts he had, to cover his tracks.

During a police interview in 2022, Mr Rippon said, Cranfield claimed to have sent some messages because he was bored and others in “panic mode” because he wanted to fix things with his wife.

The trial continues.