‘Constable Strumpet’ dressed in miniskirt to f leece pensioner
A MINI skirt-wearing police officer dubbed ‘Constable Strumpet’, who seduced an 82-year-old and fleeced him of thousands of pounds, has been sacked for gross misconduct.
PC Clare Stretton was appointed family liaison officer for Charles Foulkes after his son was knifed to death.
Stretton, then 37, began visiting him in short skirts and ‘fluffy jumpers’ before embarking on a sexual relationship with the pensioner after his wife died, his family have claimed.
Before her death, Mr Foulkes’s wife Dorothy is said to have started referring to the policewoman as her husband’s ‘bit of fluff’.
The couple’s daughter, Michele Pugh, 67, told how she was left horrified when the family found Mr Foulkes’s stash of Viagra and condoms after his death in 2011. He had previously asked his grandson how he could look more fashionable.
A police misconduct hearing found that Stretton, who had served with West Mercia Police for 26 years, had taken £15,000 from the pensioner and breached standards of professional behaviour in the areas of honesty and integrity.
Last night Stretton, from Telford, Shropshire, claimed she had ‘been through hell’ and denied she had been in a relationship with Mr Foulkes who she described as a ‘mentor’ and ‘father figure’.
Addressing allegations about her skimpy outfits Stretton, who has been in a relationship for seven years, said: ‘I’ve never been a harlot or a short-skirted hussy, it’s laughable and ridiculous.’
Mr Foulkes’s three daughters, Mrs Pugh, Charmaine Jones, 57, and Carla Kelly, 51, claim they told
‘Family suffered great distress’
West Mercia Police about the ‘inappropriate’ affair in 2002, 2006 and 2007, but very little was done.
Last year, they lodged a writ at the High Court asking for compensation following ‘serious distress’ caused to the family. They later won an undisclosed payout from the force.
A misconduct hearing was eventually launched after the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner found that Stretton should answer to allegations of gross misconduct. She had first been sent to care for Mr Foulkes and his wife after their son Colin was brutally murdered by his lodger in 2001.
Mr Foulkes, from Church Stretton, Shropshire, then inherited his son’s £180,000 estate. His family claim Stretton began dressing in provocative outfits from the moment she met Mr Foulkes in 2001, in a bid to seduce the retired painter. Mr Foulkes’s daughters claim that the flirtation then escalated to a relationship and that Miss Stretton began accepting money from the pensioner, who repeatedly wined and dined her. Over the course of ten years, the family believe their father was fleeced of £100,000.
It emerged the pair had exchanged texts and PC Stretton had told the widower he was a ‘very special man’.
After a two- day hearing, the charges against her were found proved and she was dismissed with immediate effect. Stretton did not appear but Mr Foulkes’s daughters were present and said they were ‘delighted’ with the outcome.
Speaking after the hearing, the family’s lawyer Nick Turner said Mr Foulkes’ wife had suffered ‘great distress’ before her death as a result of Stretton’s behaviour. ‘It was perverse and wrong not to bring misconduct charges against PC Stretton in the first instance,’ he added.
Detective Superintendent Gary Watson, head of professional standards at West Mercia Police, said: ‘The misconduct hearing found that the behaviour of the officer fell below the standards we expect from our officers and staff.’