A POLICE officer who became “fixated” with a married man, hacked his social media accounts and posted offensive remarks about his wife has been jailed for almost a year.
Ashley Boyd, 27, developed an obsession with Kevin O’Connor, who is married to her former friend, and sent messages pretending to be him about his “unhappy marriage”.
She changed his relationship status on Facebook to “single” and posted an offensive comment about his wife Rhona on his Twitter account.
Boyd even had a friend give a false statement to police taking the blame for the Twitter post.
Boyd, from Moodiesburn, pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to “engaging in a course of conduct which caused Rhona and Kevin O’Connor fear and alarm” by stalking, between June and September last year.
She also admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Sheriff Paul Crozier jailed her for 11 months and granted a five-year non-harassment order to protect the O’Connors.
He described the course of conduct as “evil and calculated to be destructive”.
He told Boyd: “Your conduct throughout this whole sorry episode has been destructive, self-serving and manipulative.”
Speaking after the sentencing, Mrs O’Connor said: “I am relieved, I actually can’t believe it.
“It has been an absolute nightmare, my health suffered, I have been ill constantly.
"This is punishment, we will be able to move on.”
The court previously heard there was “absolutely no romantic or sexual relationship” between Mr O’Connor and Boyd but she had become "fixated" with him.
Mrs O’Connor met Boyd when they worked in Boots, although the friendship had deteriorated by the end of 2013.
Boyd, a mother-of-one, joined Police Scotland in 2015.
Mr and Mrs O’Connor were on holiday in June last year when his sister sent him a text message to say his Facebook page had been changed to say he was single.
He also received a text from a colleague saying she had a “strange” conversation with him on Facebook messenger in which he said he was unhappy in his marriage.
Mr O’Connor discovered his email account appeared to have been hacked.
An offensive tweet with slurs including “wouldn’t want to go near that” and the hashtag “wife” had been posted. Mr O'Connor contacted the police.
Officers investigated the IP address used to access the Facebook account which led to Boyd’s mobile number.
In September last year Mr O’Connor took his wife to a hospital appointment.
Mr Beadsworth added: “The O’Connors attended to be told that Mrs O’Connor’s appointment had been cancelled by the patient.
“Mrs O’Connor stated that she did not cancel the appointment."
Investigations revealed Boyd phoned the hospital twice in one day.
She also persuaded a friend to make a false statement to police claiming they posted the offensive tweet.
Mr Beadsworth said: “Boyd collected her friend and drove her to and from Shettleston Police Office."
The friend later admitted she had falsely confessed to having hacked Mr O'Connor's Twitter account and posted an offensive message.
A search warrant was granted and Boyd’s phones were examined and an incriminating text message discovered.
Defence lawyer Lene Doherty said her client wrongly interpreted mixed messages from Mr O’Connor which promoted her to carry out the Facebook activity.
Miss Doherty said: “She’s embarrassed and ashamed.”
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