Controlling cop who stalked girlfriends and banned red nail polish kicked off force

A police officer has been sacked for "controlling" two girlfriends after abusing his powers to electronically track them and find out who had sent them flowers.

Disgraced Avon and Somerset PC Wayne Hodge, 38, became obsessed with his girlfriends and flew into jealous rages at the thought of them meeting other men.

He was dismissed following a misconduct panel hearing at Avon and Somerset Police headquarters, which he did not attend.

During the hearing, the panel heard evidence about his controlling behaviour from the first of his girlfriends, referred to as Miss T.

Supermarket worker Miss T received the unsigned bouquet of flowers from a regular customer.

But at first she mistakenly thought they might be from Hodge, and rang him to ask if he had sent them as a romantic gift.

But he told her:"If you bring those f*cking flowers home I'll f*cking stamp all over them."

The uniformed officer then visited the florist where the flowers were purchased and demanded the contact details of the sender claiming he was investigating a stalking.

He subsequently rang the customer, who had sent them to Miss T, lying that she had been stalked in the past and was distressed by the gift.

Barrister Mark Ley-Morgan, representing Avon and Somerset Constabulary, said: "He [Hodge] says he was acting in the course of his duties, because he says concern was caused to Miss T.

"But we say ... he's lied to the customer, the florist and in the subsequent intelligence report he filed."

Miss T said this was just one jealous incident in a turbulent two-year relationship between early 2014 and November 2015.

She was banned from filling up her water bottle at the local gym in case she met men at the water fountain.

Spilt up

She could not get Tesco deliveries if he wasn't at the house they shared, in case male delivery men turned up. And she said he would not allow her to paint her nails red because it "gave men the wrong idea."

Hodge threw a mobile phone at her in August 2015, said Miss T.

"It hit me straight on - he was angry, his face was bright red, he was spitting everywhere, she said.

"He kept saying: 'You need to tell me the PIN, you need to tell me the PIN.' My friend had changed it because I'd had enough of him."

A friend of Ms T tipped off his bosses at Avon and Somerset Constabulary, this relationship ended, and he was suspended for a period.

Even after they split up, Hodge would follow her around, added Ms T. She said: "There was one time when I was sitting in the car with my friend and he texted me, and when I didn't respond straight away he drove into the car park."

When Hodge returned to his job in January 2017 he showed the same controlling behaviour towards his current girlfriend, referred to as Miss D, a police community support officer.

The hearing heard Miss D was banned by Hodge from using unisex changing rooms if a male member of staff was present and was constantly sent text messages by him, to which she was expected to respond immediately.

Hodge logged onto one of the police's internal computer systems in January to track his partner's whereabouts.

Abuse of position

Avon and Somerset Barrister Ley-Morgan said: "He used police systems while he was on duty to check where Ms D was. He told her that a lot of his behaviour was due to anxiety.

"We do not accept there is any medical evidence to substantiate this, and that even if there was, we say it is no excuse whatsoever for his behaviour."

Hodge refuted the allegations against him in prepared statements, but refused to answer questions in interviews.

Chairman of the disciplinary panel Alex Lock said: "We found it was an abuse of position for a police officer to obtain customer details from the florist. It was an entirely personal matter and PC Hodge was dishonest to present it otherwise.

"In relation to Miss D, all the factual allegations were supported by the text messages we had seen.

"The tone, contents and volume of the messages together with the fact they were sent during and about work satisfied us he was behaving in a controlling and coercive manner.

"It was a breach of the code to use the police system to track Miss D."

The panel said Hodge's behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and he was dismissed him without notice.