The thin white line
PC photographed with cocaine on her breasts is jailed... along with her lover on the force
A RIOT squad policewoman who let a colleague photograph her with a line of cocaine across her breasts was jailed in disgrace yesterday after their drug-fuelled affair was revealed.
PC Kerry Reeve, 36, had a two-year relationship with married constable Adam Jackson, during which they snorted cocaine and swapped text messages about their drug use.
In one exchange, the £52,000-a-year officer – who had been photographed in full tactical gear outside a burning store at the height of the riots in the summer of 2011 – bragged to her lover how she ‘went under big time’ and ‘felt sick all night’ after using so much of the drug. In another, she suggested they ‘ take it easy’ after taking ‘way too much’.
Jackson took the photo of her flaunting a line of cocaine on her breasts after they checked into a luxury hotel. The pair were exposed after police arrested Jackson as he emerged from Reeve’s house with a holdall containing cocaine and MDMA. After Reeve was arrested in the dining room, officers found the photograph but she initially claimed the white powder was flour, saying it was part of a ‘running joke’.
She also tried to blame traces of cocaine found in her hair on contact with criminals as part of her job.
But yesterday Reeve – who has quit her job with Greater Manchester Police – broke down in tears as she was jailed for 31 weeks after she admitted encouraging the commission of drugs offences.
Jackson admitted possession of cocaine on 20 occasions and was jailed for 18 months after the judge said it ‘beggars belief’ that he had not considered the impact on his performance or the reputation of his force. Since the scandal broke, he lost his job with the same force and has been trying to patch up his marriage.
The lovers were already dabbling in drugs when they began their two-year affair in October 2015, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Jackson, from Bacup, used local dealer Daniel Wade to get cocaine, prosecutor Alexander Langhorn said, messaging him: ‘Do you know anybody who can get some sniff?’
A further message to Wade from Jackson in May 2016 asked ‘Got beak?’ which the court heard was a common term for cocaine, while another message referred to a £90 ‘birthday bonanza package’ of 3 grams of cocaine. Jackson and Reeve were arrested at Reeve’s house in Middleton, Manchester, in February last year.
In mitigation for Reeve, who joined the police in 2001, Ricky Holland said she had suffered trauma from an abusive relationship and was a ‘rock’ for her mother who was in poor health. ‘ She did not commit any offences until she met Jackson,’ he added.
For Jackson, Michael Lavery said: ‘This has had a profound and catastrophic effect upon his life – he always wanted to be a police officer.’
He said cocaine had become ‘a necessity’ for Jackson after he felt ‘exasperated’ by a complaint about his performance, but admitted he had in been ‘reckless and stupid’. Judge Michael Leeming told Jackson he found it ‘hard told to believe’ he needed cocaine to forget about his problems. ‘We understand it is a difficult job but this doesn’t give you a licence to resort to class A drugs to relax,’ he added. ‘You have no thought to how this would affect your performance at work or the impact on your reputation as a police officer or public confidence in the police. That beggars belief.’ He told Reeve: ‘This was no excuse for you to resort to cocaine.’ Wade, 36, of Haslingden, was jailed for two years for supplying cocaine.
‘This beggars belief’