Cocaine-fuelled affair Pc told she must stay in jail
DISGRACED OFFICER CLAIMED EXPERIENCE BEHIND BARS WAS ‘VERY UNCOMFORTABLE’
A DISGRACED police officer who encouraged her colleague to buy cocaine, which they would take during secret hotel trysts, has failed in a bid to be released from prison.
Kerry Reeve, 36, was jailed in June after it was discovered she had asked her fellow Pc Adam Jackson, 36, to buy the drug.
Now London’s Appeal Court has upheld her sentence, with top judges saying she must ‘face the consequences of her actions.’
A previous hearing at Manchester Crown Court heard Reeve and Jackson had an affair, and would regularly take the drug together during hotel meet-ups.
The pair, who both worked in the Tactical Aid Unit, were arrested in February 2017 as Jackson pulled up outside Reeve’s home carrying a black holdall.
Inside were three snap bags of cocaine, one-and-a-half MDMA tablets and three Viagra tablets.
Reeve, of Barratt Gardens, Middleton, was locked up for 31 weeks in June, after earlier admitting two charges of encouraging the commission of an offence, namely the supply of Class A drugs
Jackson, of Tong Lane, Bacup was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence and two counts of possessing Class A drugs.
Lawyers told Reeve’s appeal she had faced daily threats since being locked up, and was afraid for her own safety.
The court heard she was of previous good character and had some personal difficulties which had led to mental health problems. The ‘regular cocaine user’ also had responsibilities for looking after her mother, whose ill-health was serious and continuing.
Her lawyers argued her jail term should have been suspended, and that she had in any case ‘served long enough’ behind bars. Given her background as a police officer, her life in custody is a ‘very uncomfortable experience,’ the court was told.
But Mrs Justice McGowan said that ‘offences of this sort attract significant public attention, quite rightly, and are widely reported in the media’ “The consequential lack of confidence, in the public view, of the police service is marked,” she said.
The judge who jailed Reeve said that her crimes were ‘so serious only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified.’
Justice McGowan said: “There was nothing wrong with the Crown Court judge’s decision not to suspend the jail term.
“Nor is it open to the court to say the term of 31 weeks is manifestly excessive or wrong in principle.”
Mr Justice Stuart-Smith added: “This was a serious piece of criminal offending.
“Reeve was a serving police officer and the man she encouraged to supply her was also a serving police officer.”
They concluded that she ‘more than anyone’ must have known the consequences of her actions and ‘now has to meet those consequences.’ Judge Mrs Justice McGowan