PCSOs who framed an innocent man are put behind bars
TWO STOCKPORT police community support officers who framed an innocent man with false allegations – including attempted murder – have been locked up.
Couple Jessica Hussell and Thomas Fendall provided false information to the charity, Crimestoppers, naming Hussell’s former boyfriend, Ryan Parker, as responsible for a hit-andrun in the town centre where another PCSO was injured. Hussell tried to make out the incident was a case of mistaken identity and she was the intended target.
They also supplied false information, claiming to be working on behalf of Greater Manchester Police, to the DVLA which resulted in their victim having his licence revoked on medical grounds.
Eight officers later used a battering ram to burst into what they thought was the home of Mr Parker’s mother as they hunted him in connection with the hit-andrun. But Liverpool Crown Court was told that days later the allegations were found to be a charade.
Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, told the pair: “What you did in relation to Ryan Parker was as pure an abuse of your position as law enforcement officers as is possible to imagine.”
He said they were responsible for a ‘truly wicked’ and ‘dreadful vendetta.’
Hussell, 19, and Fendall, 26, pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice.
Fendall, of Mansfield Avenue, Denton, was sentenced to 19 months in jail and Hussell, of Riverside Close, Glossop to 16 months in a young offenders’ institute.
Fendall had pleaded guilty to another count of misconduct in a public office and four counts of computer misuse relating to the GMP intelligence system. The pair were arrested in August 2015 after an investigation by GMP’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit and suspended from the force.
One of the additional offences committed by Fendall was when he was required to identify a man after a sudden death in Stockport.
Despite not having to carry out any investigation as the death was due to natural causes, he took a photograph of the body, naked from the waist down, and forwarded it to his then wife and brother-in-law.
Judge Goldstone said: “I’m satisfied it was born out of stupidity and mischief without any thought to the sensitivities of the family of the deceased in order to get a cheap laugh.”
In court, Fendall was described as a highlyregarded hardworking PCSO who changed dramatically after becoming infatuated with Hussell, when she started on the Stockport Division in March 2015.
He split from his wife to begin a relationship with her, going from a ‘mature young man to a teenager.’
Hussell finished her relationship with Mr Parker about the same time.
Mr Parker, who was 20 at the time, had no previous convictions, or involvement with the police.
Judge Clement told them they had targeted Mr Parker with ‘the specific intention of causing him harm, inconvenience and distress... in the expectation that he would be prosecuted.’