Former police officer sentenced for harassing ex

A former police officer has been sentenced to a community order for harassing his ex-partner and breaking the terms of a restraining order.

Paul Whitehurst, 54, who served as a detective sergeant in the Warwickshire Police force had previously been sentenced to 18 weeks in jail after admitting attacking her.

The court at the time heard Holly - not her real name - had felt imprisoned in her own home.

After breaking the terms of the restraining order banning him from contacting her, Whitehurst was given an 18-month community order with probation at Mold Magistrates' Court on Friday.

Whitehurst was ordered not to contact his ex-partner or her family directly, via social media or a third party, but 16 days later searched for her online.

At the sentencing hearing, the prosecution read out a victim impact statement written by Holly.

"I feel like I'm reliving the trauma he's put me through over and over again," she said.

"The sheer anxiety and stress is unimaginable."

At his trial in Mold last month, the court heard Whitehurst, from Holywell in Flintshire, accessed Holly's LinkedIn profile.

She gave evidence and said that she had received a notification that her ex-partner had clicked on to her profile and that of her boss.

Holly had started a new job, and her profile detailed the company she worked for and in which areas she would be working.

"I'm living in constant fear of Paul turning up at work or home address", she says in her victim statement.

"It's not only affected me emotionally but ruined my work life. I've had to disclose my whole past to my boss".

"I was absolutely horrified and petrified," Holly told the court in April.

"Paul Whitehurst went to prison for assaulting me. The thought that he'd come out of prison and was still infatuated with me was terrifying.

"There's a restraining order stopping him from going to where I live but what is there to stop him coming to where I work."

"I now have to have colleagues walk with me through the car park and to the station."

Whitehurst told the court he had been checking that the jobs he was looking to apply for were not in the same business park as Holly.

"If I'd wanted to message her I'd have messaged her," he said.

"I was being diligent by checking where she worked."

Mr Whitehurst, appearing in the docks for his sentencing on Friday said he had had no intentions of breaching the restraining order.

"There's nothing malicious about looking at her Linkedin", he said.

As part of his community order, Whitehurst is required to complete 26 court accredited programmes with probation,180 hours of unpaid work and 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He is also required to pay £650 to the prosecution and a £114 victim surcharge.

Warwickshire Police Crime and Commissioner said the force did not so far have grounds to make an application to force Whitehurst to forfeit his pension.

Holly is not the only woman to report being harassed by Whitehurst.

• 'I felt a prisoner at hands of my police abuser'

Charlotte Smith had previously complained to Warwickshire Police about Whitehurst's behaviour.

She said she was stalked and harassed by him over a two-and-a-half-year period after ending their brief relationship in 2021, but was told there was not enough evidence to charge him.

Ms Smith said she had more than 30 videos recorded of Whitehurst being outside her house.

"He would literally appear out of nowhere. It would feel like somebody was watching me," she said.

"He felt like he was above the law and he felt like he could do whatever he wanted to do."

Warwickshire Police held a gross misconduct hearing into the former officer's behaviour in May 2024 which found he would have been dismissed had he not retired a month earlier.

The force has not commented following the latest sentencing.