Ex-royal protection officer, 52, who ‘pestered’ revenge porn victim about his ‘ruined’ sex life with wife after seeing intimate photos of her is jailed

A former royal protection officer has been jailed for ‘pestering’ a highly vulnerable revenge porn victim – whose nude photos he kept on his work phone.

Ex-Met and West Mercia Police constable Mark Cranfield sent inappropriate messages, including about his sex life, to a woman who had come forward to report intimate image abuse.

She had provided evidence to the police while making a complaint against her ex-partner in 2018, only to be told with a ‘smirking smile’ by the officer: ‘I’m glad I got to see the pictures.’

Intimate videos and naked photos of the women, taken from the investigation, were found on the 52-year-old’s phone more than two years after it had concluded.

The victim said she subsequently withdrew the revenge porn complaint against her ex-partner ‘because I didn’t want any further contact with Pc Cranfield because he made me feel so uncomfortable’.

Cranfield, who was based at Ludlow police station in Shropshire, was convicted in December of two counts of misconduct in a public office and an offence of accessing computer records, including the woman’s phone number, without authorisation.

The charges alleged that he had inappropriate contact with the victim, sent her messages about his marital sex life, and forwarded intimate video and images to a WhatsApp account which has yet to be traced.

The woman was said to have attended Ludlow police station to make the complaint after intimate images of her were posted online.

But when she was interviewed by the officer, he forced her to rewatch all the footage and made her unnecessarily describe to him what was in the footage, leaving her feeling ‘uncomfortable’.

She told the court she felt Cranfield was ‘more interested in the content of her, rather than the report she had made’.

Cranfield, of Bromfield, near Ludlow, misconducted himself by sending the friend request minutes after the woman left a police station, where he had downloaded video given to him as evidence.

Passing a sentence of eight months at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Kerry Maylin said: ‘You kept in contact with her, I’m sure, not only for the purposes of the investigation but some other reason – because of the intimate images you had seen, you needed or wanted a relationship with her.

‘I can only conclude that you wanted contact with her because you wanted an intimate relationship with her whether that be in person or online.

‘Misconduct in a public office by a police officer is a grave betrayal of trust. Only in exceptional circumstances would an immediate custodial sentence not be appropriate.’

Cranfield was told he would spend four months of his eight month sentence behind bars.

Prosecutor Simon Rippon previously told the court that the offences came to light in April 2021, when Cranfield’s work phone was seized from his locker without warning for reasons entirely unconnected to the case.

Passing a sentence of eight months at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Kerry Maylin said: ‘Misconduct in a public office by a police officer is a grave betrayal of trust. Only in exceptional circumstances would an immediate custodial sentence not be appropriate’. Pictured: Cranfield leaving Birmingham Crown Court in December

Two photographs of the complainant were found on the phone, with videos of the woman stripping and engaging in a sexual act.

Other images of the woman wearing clothing had been deleted, the court heard.

The officer then sent further messages ‘pestering’ the woman, asking how she was and saying his sex life with his wife ‘had gone out of the window’.

Cranfield denied he had been ‘titillated’ by the video, said he had contacted the woman via a social media messaging app to discuss ‘everyday’ issues, and had only sent further messages in panic because his wife wrongly believed he was having an affair.

In a victim impact statement, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: ‘I withdrew a complaint regarding my ex-partner because I didn’t want any further contact with Pc Cranfield because he made me feel so uncomfortable.

‘I changed my number to prevent him from calling me. I have not called the police subsequently because I have been scared to do so.

‘I don’t trust the police anymore. I used to say to my kids “if there’s any trouble, go to the police” – but I don’t say that anymore.

‘I feel this has limited me going out and living my life. I find myself looking over my shoulder all the time. My overwhelming feeling is anger and it has led me to lose trust with people, including the police.’

The jury of four women and eight men was told Cranfield’s wife found out in 2019 that he had been messaging the woman and he ‘begged’ the complainant to tell his spouse that ‘nothing had happened’.

Cranfield also deleted one of his two Facebook accounts to cover his tracks.

The trial heard he had forwarded the images to another phone via WhatsApp shortly after the woman retracted her complaint to police.

Cranfield said he had never had an online conversation with the complainant about his sex life with his wife ‘at any length’ but conceded that he had discussed his marital sex life being ‘ruined’.

‘That’s just an off-hand comment during the conversation,’ he told the jury. ‘It was just a stupid comment. It was light-hearted banter.’

In mitigation, Elizabeth Power, defending, said: ‘This was a man who, clearly, at the time was going through some difficulties within his relationship with his wife and found solace in contacting someone else.

‘He sought out the complainant as an emotional crutch for the difficulties he was facing at that time.’

A statement read to the trial during the defence case said Cranfield, who was a constable for 27 years, spent the majority of his service with the Met on royal protection duties, and had also been an armed officer with the West Mercia force.

Jurors deliberated over three days before unanimously convicting Cranfield of three of the four offences he faced, despite his claims that he had no sexual interest in the woman and believed he had deleted the images and video, which were found on his work phone more than two years after the inquiry.