Police officer cleared of perverting course of justice after being accused of remotely wiping seized iPhone

A police officer accused of destroying evidence after being arrested for harassing his estranged wife has been acquitted.

Jurors took less than half an hour to find Police Constable Stephen Anthony Smith not guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice.

The 32-year-old officer had denied remotely wiping the memory of his iPad and iPhone after the devices were seized by officers investigating the case.

Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard his wife, Police Constable Catherine Louise Taylor, 31, had begun a new relationship with another officer in the South Wales Police force.

PC Smith told the court he suspected his wife was involved with someone else. But he told the jury she “made him guess” who it was.

It was only then he discovered that she had started a relationship with Andrew Gibbons, her police sergeant.

PC Smith was arrested in March 2014 on suspicion of harassing PC Taylor and was released in the early hours of the next morning.

Owen Williams, prosecuting, alleged that PC Smith, within 30 minutes of being released, had then initiated a process to remotely wipe his iPad and iPhone held in police custody using the Wifi at his parents` home where he was living and using his unique Apple ID credentials.

PC Smith denied the claims, saying when he had arrived home he went to his parents` room to see his mother, who was in bed, before going to his own room.

He told the court he had refused to hand over the codes to the iPhone claiming he was trying to “protect” his wife`s honour because it contained a video of them having consensual sex.

The iPhone was successfully wiped but PC Taylor had already told the jury the police knew about the video because it had been on her phone, which she had handed over.

“She had led you on. Been particularly cruel to you. Committed adultery. Made you guess who she was having an affair with. She had gone to family court to get a civil injunction against you and you refused to give the iPhone code to protect the honour of your wife?” said Mr Williams.

PC Smith replied: “Yes. I was just trying to protect her. I thought we had a chance. If there was an inkling I could see my daughter every day of the week I would have done that.”

And he gave the wrong code for the iPad claiming he had not known his sister, Katy Smith, must have changed it the previous day.

PC Smith alleged police incompetence had rendered the devices useless and told the jury he had “grave concerns” claiming they had told him: “We`ve f****d up. We`ve blocked the iPad.”

But experts managed to unlock the disabled iPad first ensuring there was no Wifi connection, which prevented the receipt of a remote initiate wipe message.

PC Smith denied sending the wipe initiation messages and also buying a pay-as-you-go mobile phone to send confession messages to his new iPhone.

And he denied waiting so long to tell his defence team to ensure CCTV of him allegedly buying the phone voucher top-up would be overwritten.

“I wasn`t going to say anything at all. I didn`t want to get someone close to me into trouble,” he said.

He further denied changing the name of the home Wifi firstly to WHOREIN4 — because they lived at number 4 — and then to WATCHINGU.

The court also heard that before his trial date last August PC Smith received two anonymous text messages from someone claiming to have wiped the iPhone and iPad to protect him.

His trial was abandoned while the force investigated the source of the text messages and allegedly discovered they were sent from a pay-as-you-go phone purchased by PC Smith.

The jury was shown screenshots of the two lengthy text messages.

One message said: “Stephen, I am sorry what I put you through. I wiped the iPhone and iPad when I heard you had been bailed. I never realised it would cause all these problems. I am afraid to tell the truth because I will lose my career and my life.”