A former detective who stalked her ex-partner and tried to ruin his surfing business by posting “untrue and seriously alarming” accusations on social media has avoided an immediate jail term.
Sue Thorpe, 44, a former officer with Northumbria Police, bombarded surfing instructor Barry Henderson with abusive voicemails, texts and emails in a year-long harassment campaign after he ended their relationship.
She also used the police national computer to illegally look up information about Mr Henderson following the split.
On Wednesday Thorpe, of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years after being found guilty of stalking and misuse of computer data.
She was also ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work, 20 rehabilitation activity days and handed a 10-year restraining order banning her from any contact with Mr Henderson.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that between June 2020 and September 2021 Thorpe sent Mr Henderson messages accusing him of being violent towards her during their five-year-long relationship and, “most seriously, being a paedophile” who viewed indecent images of children.
A judge was told she repeated these claims to his friends, family members and new partner, and tried to harm his surfing business by posting them on Facebook and to a charity his business worked with.
Thorpe set up a fake email address to contact other organisations with her accusations, at one point pretending to be a concerned parent, and turned up at his workplace twice, it was said.
She even set up fake Tinder accounts as “honeytraps” to “try and catch him out”, a judge said.
In a victim impact statement read in court, Mr Henderson said Thorpe was “on a mission to destroy him” and her “untrue and seriously alarming” claims made him feel “physically sick” when he read them.
The statement read: “Sue is clearly trying to ruin my life and make my day to day living a nightmare.
“It is embarrassing and humiliating having to explain to family and friends what is happening.
“What Sue has done has created a massive strain on my personal life.”
Mr Henderson said Thorpe had contacted family members including his son accusing him of “various disgusting things” such as having affairs, drug taking and domestic abuse, and he had had to meet some of his male friends to assure them he was not having affairs with their partners.
He said his business had had a “massive drop in bookings”, adding: “It has got to the point where some days I don’t even want to go to work and face my customers in case they believe what Sue is saying about me.”
Judge Amanda Rippon said after the trial she was “absolutely sure” that Thorpe’s claims that she saw Mr Henderson looking at images of teenage girls on the internet, and that he assaulted her, were not true.
She said Thorpe, who had been a police officer for 19 years, had suffered a miscarriage of twins following IVF and the offending happened “at a time of her life when she was in crisis and ill”.
Sentencing Thorpe to a suspended jail term, Judge Rippon said: “That you were able to access police computers because you were a police officer is an additional and very serious feature, but you were ill, you were lost, and you were acting entirely out of character, undoubtedly as you saw your last chance of a family dissipate.”
The court heard Thorpe had resigned from the police, but would probably have been sacked following misconduct proceedings after her conviction.
Detective Superintendent Donna Rose, head of Northumbria Police’s Professional Standards Department, said: “When concerns were raised in relation to this individual, we began an investigation and they were subsequently suspended from duty.
“A file was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service which resulted in her being charged.
“Her actions were completely unacceptable and are in no way representative of the overwhelming majority of officers, staff and volunteers at Northumbria Police who come to work to make a positive difference to people’s lives.
“As a force, we have made it very clear that when someone falls below the standards expected and which they made a commitment to uphold we will take appropriate action.
“We can confirm misconduct proceedings are also being progressed in relation to the individual who has resigned from the force.”
