CONSTABLE JAILED AS VENDETTA I was framed by cop ex love
Nurse’s jail ordeal after officer fakes dossier of violent threats against him
TRAINEE nurse Charlotte ClarkHughes had no idea of the horror that lay ahead when she dumped her controlling cop boyfriend.
It was the trigger for evil special constable Tristian Smith to launch a terrifying 11-month vendetta against her and her family.
And it led to them all being arrested – and landed Charlotte, her stepdad and her disabled mum in police cells.
Smith, 26, hacked into phones and Facebook accounts to bombard himself with threatening messages from them.
He reported them all to Kent Police for stalking and harassment and even staged fake break-ins at his home by armed masked hitmen and spray painted “die” on the wall.
To back up his twisted story of living in fear, the IT graduate had a panic alarm and CCTV cameras installed.
But Smith wasn’t as clever as he thought – and it was the cameras that eventually exposed his cruel hoax.
Now Charlotte, 26, speaks for the first time of the 11-month nightmare she and her family suffered at his hands – and the aftermath that has left her on medication for severe depression and anxiety.
TERRIFIED
As Smith begins four years and nine months behind bars, Charlotte says: “Tristian used to tell me integrity and honesty were a massive part of being in the police. He doesn’t understand the meaning of those words.
“He wanted to take my future away. A lot of people stopped talking to me because of his lies. I had to make a whole new set of friends.”
The messages, revealed in the court case, called him “a dead man”, “fat, worthless and pathetic” and claimed his home was being watched. “The words I saw in those messages terrified me,” says Charlotte.
“I was mortified anyone could think I would threaten to kill someone – and that he knew enough about computers and police protocol to incriminate me.”
But when she met Smith at Kent University in January 2014 he appeared to be the “perfect gentleman”.
“We were both in a Facebook freshers group and got chatting. He was lovely, friendly and we started dating months later,” says Charlotte.
Within six months, Smith’s behaviour changed. “We were arguing and he shouted that he wished my family dead. I was upset but hoped it was just a row,” she says.
“He guessed my passwords and started to check my Snapchat and texts regularly, knowing I didn’t like it.”
About that time, Smith joined Kent Police as a volunteer special constable.
“He did 20 hours a week as he saw it as a potential career,” she said. “He talked a lot about what actions constituted crimes. Looking back, it’s sick.”
In December 2015, things escalated. Smith falsely accused her stepfather John Bradshaw of violence against her mum Jane, who has a neuromuscular
I was mortified anyone could think that I would ever threaten to kill someone CHARLOTTE CLARKE-HUGHES ON COP’S PLOT AGAINST HER
disease. Two months later he falsely accused Charlotte of cheating and demanded she stopped seeing her friends.
“My self-esteem was so low I did,” she says. “He always put me down. He’d scream, ‘I wish you’d die in a fire’ – then apologise with chocolates.”
She tried to end the relationship in September 2017 when they were back at her family home in Chester.
“He pinned me down, screamed in my face, then bit me on the shoulder and tried to set fire to the dog bed,” she says. “I was terrified. The next day, he bought me flowers.”
Three weeks later, frightened Charlotte dumped him by text – then flew to Spain. “I had to get away,” she says. “He sent 50 voicemails begging me to come back. I ignored them.
“A few weeks later he sent an email declaring his love for me. I replied saying if he contacted me again I would call the police.” A court later heard Smith chillingly told his brother in October 2017 how he wanted to “tear apart” his ex’s family in revenge.
That day, he reported Charlotte’s mum and stepdad – now no longer together – for sending a text threatening to kill him, which he had sent himself.
Charlotte’s stepdad John, 55, was arrested and held for 20 hours. Her 51-year-old mum was held the following day. Charlotte says: “When John was released he was sobbing. They were both broken, mortified.
STRUGGLING
“Mum had her nurse and her meds while questioned but two days later she had a flare-up due to the stress and was admitted to hospital for 10 days as she was struggling to breathe.”
It would later emerge one of their phones was broken while the other was lost in Spain when the texts were sent. Then the following month Charlotte was arrested for making threats to kill a former flatmate of Smith’s,
Natalie Poundall. “I had a call from Manchester Police telling me to surrender myself at a station,” she says.
“I barely knew
Natalie. Mum told me the cells were freezing so I put on slipper socks.”
She had to wait for 10 hours at Chester police station before officers from
Manchester arrived to question her in the early hours.
“They showed me a file of screenshots.
One said ‘Tristian’s dead, you’re next’. It was extreme. He knew his stuff, he used to build computers,” says Charlotte.
She was released pending further investigation after telling police she was working when the messages were sent and not near her phone. “I knew I could prove I didn’t do it,” she said.
Upon release she found emails from Facebook on her laptop warning someone was
Because of him I sat in a cell feeling isolated, scared and dehumanised CHARLOTTE ON HER SHOCK ARREST OVER ‘DEATH THREATS’