Convicted off-duty officer who bit man in fracas `to get him off` waits for his sentence

A police officer accused of “latching on to a man`s lip” outside a bar and hacking his alleged victim’s Facebook account in a bid to clear his name has been found guilty of unlawful wounding.

But a jury found Detective Constable Stephen Smith not guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice.

Det Con Smith was on trial charged with assaulting a man outside Brewhouse, Cardiff, while off-duty on March 12 last year as fans flocked to watch the Six Nations England v Wales clash.

He was accused of biting Jonathan Harris after the pair became involved in an argument and later trying to cover his tracks by sending Facebook messages to himself purporting to be from the other man.

Det Con Smith claimed Mr Harris was being “aggressive” and “looked like he was going to throw a punch” at his girlfriend.

The court heard the two men clashed with “foreheads touching” and the officer said he used his incisor to “bite (Harris) to make him let go” after the claimant bit first in the encounter.

Det Con Smith told investigating officers: “I had to do it to get him off. There was no other way as he was latched on to it (the lip). I just wanted to get away from him. It was literally over in like seconds.”

The officer also said he was around a “six or seven out of 10” on a scale of intoxication and was trying to “diffuse the situation and control Harris”.

Shortly after the Cardiff incident, South Wales Police was made aware of a series of Facebook messages between Det Con Smith and a profile under the name of the complainant Jonathan Harris.

The messages sent to Det Con Smith’s Facebook profile suggest the complainant also bit Smith, was “coked-up” during the incident and offered to settle the case out of court for £1,000. Mr Harris denied writing the messages.

The force “downloaded” Mr Harris’ Facebook profile which had no trace of the messages.

Det Con Smith was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and several items were seized including a laptop and hard drive.

Prosecutor Owen Williams argued that Det Con Smith was the author of Mr Harris’ messages by either hacking his Facebook account or setting up a spoof or “fake” profile.

The force was unable to recover messages from Det Con Smith’s profile as he made a request to Facebook for it to be permanently deleted.

A digital forensic and cybercrime expert revealed Det Constable Smith’s seized hard drive contained internet history on March 2 and 3, 2014, relating to searches for Facebook hacking software and password decryption.

The 33-year-old police officer, who was suspended following the allegations, had denied both charges.

CCTV footage showed the two men coming together because Det Con Smith had grabbed Mr Harris by his throat. Prosecutor Owen Williams said it showed a savage attack on the victim.

“What happened is that Mr Smith flipped. This was an unlawful assault, this was not a defensive action,” Mr Williams added.

Judge Richard Twomlow adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report and the Gwent Police officer will be sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on June 23.