Detective jailed for affair with suspect
A SCOTS detective who had an affair with a former suspect was jailed for four months yesterday.
Detective Constable Grant McPherson had sex with 20-year-old Albanian student Jessica Lorenzin at a police station, hotels and a spa while he was on duty, a court was told.
McPherson, 37, from Glasgow, plied her with herbal viagra during the trysts, over an eight-month period.
Yesterday, a judge told him his ‘utterly deplorable’ conduct had left his 16-year police career ‘in ruins’.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard the married father of one met Miss Lorenzin after she was arrested for alleged criminal damage to the door of her London home in 2015.
The case was dropped but he began texting her a week later, unbeknown to his wife Sarah. Over the eight months, the pair met regularly for sex.
Miss Lorenzin later told officers McPherson encouraged her to take herbal viagra and legal highs, which left her like a ‘zombie’.
Madeleine Wolfe, prosecuting, said: ‘Jessica Lorenzin described having sex with him at her home, in a spa with another man, three hotels and once at Notting Hill police station – all while he was on duty. She described him encouraging her to take a white powder she said was cocaine. She had not taken drugs before.
‘The defendant maintained he hadn’t given her illegal drugs but herbal viagra and legal highs.’
McPherson’s affair was uncovered after he was reported missing by his wife in the early hours of August 8, 2016. He eventually returned drunk and gave an interviewing officer who was at his home an inconsistent account of where he had been.
An internal investigation was launched into another matter, in which his phone was seized. On it, officers found incriminating messages between himself and Miss Lorenzin.
Last month, McPherson, who had returned to Scotland with his wife and son, admitted misconduct in public office. Two counts of supplying cocaine were dismissed.
Sentencing McPherson, Judge Martyn Zeidman, QC, said: ‘It was utterly deplorable behaviour. It really is a betrayal of public trust and confidence in a police officer.
‘This is obviously a court of law, not a court of morals. The fact that you have behaved so badly to your wife is not my business. On five occasions you went to hotels and on each occasion when you should have been doing your job you were with her [Miss Lorenzin].
‘I don’t accept that the sentence should be suspended. This was not a one-off act of misconduct, you did it more than once.
‘This conduct needs to be marked by a prison sentence.’
He added: ‘Your career of 16 years is in ruins. Realistically, you will be dismissed from the police force.
‘Fortunately, you have the support of a loving family.’
McPherson waved and gave the thumbs up to his family in the public gallery as he was taken down.
‘Utterly deplorable’