Secretary of police chief ‘stalked by top official’ PA ‘was seeing three other men’
A SENIOR police official stalked his boss’s PA after she ended their 18- month affair, a court heard.
Married Nick Harverson is accused of bombarding Charlotte Roberts with texts, letters and visits in a harassment campaign.
Magistrates heard he could not ‘take no for an answer’ after he was dumped by phone message while he visited his cancer-stricken mother.
PA Mrs Roberts was allegedly having flings with three other lovers during their relationship.
A court heard how Harverson gave his mistress £100 a month and would hand her cash to go out with her friends or for taxis.
But when the affair broke down last year he sent a ‘nasty’ letter, turned up at the motherof-two’s home and bombarded her with text messages, the court was told.
He also ended up in hospital after trying to kill himself, Oxford magistrates’ court heard. Harverson is former head of corporate support at Thames Valley Police, while his married mistress is the executive assistant to the force’s Crime Commissioner Anthony Stansfeld.
Mrs Roberts, 43, said she had wanted to stay friends after her lover had failed to leave his wife. But she said 58-year-old Harverson refused to take no for an answer and repeatedly hounded her to take him back.
Giving evidence yesterday, she said: ‘I just wanted it all to stop and go away.
‘I wanted Nick to leave me alone. I did not want any more messages.’ The PA, who is separated from her husband, told the court she had confided in Harverson when her marriage ended in 2015 and they began their affair later that year.
But she said she decided to call things off in October after she was confronted by her lover’s wife. The court heard she left when message Harversonshe while dumpedhe ‘devastated’was him via visitingtext his sick mother in Devon.
Mrs Roberts, who was signed off from work with stress, went to police when Harverson sent her a menacing letter calling her ‘evil’. She said: ‘As far as I was concerned, I ended the relation- ship, he didn’t want to be friends, that was it. ‘I didn’t want him coming round to my house any more, that’s why I spoke to the detective. I didn’t want him to try and break into my apartment again. I was scared.’ However, despite blocking his number and going to the police, Mrs Roberts admitted to speaking to Harverson when she spotted him in a car park after his suicidelookedShe also attempt.‘sexy’ remarkedin his motorbikethat he leathers. Breaking down on the witness stand, she said: ‘I just needed to know from him. ‘I needed to hear it from him that he didn’t [try to kill himself] because we stopped seeing each other.’ The court was also told how Harverson would give her cash regularly, but Mrs Roberts said: ‘I did not really need the money but he gifted that and that’s what made him happy.’ The trial also heard Harverson had threatened to give evidence supporting colleague Paul Hammond – the chief executive of the PCC’s office – who was suspected of harassing Mrs Roberts after discovering the couple’s affair. ‘I just felt it was a revenge attack,’ Mrs Roberts claimed. ‘I’m such a down-to-earth person that I don’t have an evil bone in my body.’ Harverson, of Cassington, Oxfordshire, denies harassment between November 16 and December 22 last year. The trial continues next month.