Gavin Harper, 45, (left) found Stephanie Glynn, 40, (right) and Andrew McLullich, 42, in a Screwfix car park(Picture: Bruce Adams/ Daily Mail/Lynda Roughley)
An ‘obsessed’ former police constable who caught his wife having sex with a married colleague in a Screwfix car park has narrowly avoided jail after being convicted of stalking.
Gavin Harper, 45, found Stephanie Glynn, 40, and Andrew McLullich, 42, outside the hardware store in Birkenhead, Merseyside, on February 16, 2021, after secretly placing a tracker on his wife’s car.
He crept up to the vehicle and used his mobile to film the pair, who were naked from the waist down, before allegedly shouting: ‘I’ve got you on film sh***ing my wife.’
Harper had been accused of assaulting Mr McLullich, a Merseyside Police Inspector, but was cleared of wounding at Liverpool Crown Court.
He claimed he only struck the senior officer in self-defence.
But the dad-of-two was found guilty of aggravated stalking, including secretly bugging Ms Glynn’s car, listening to her conservations, tracking her movements and taking her phone without permission.
Prosecutors said it was the culmination of a campaign of ‘obsessive, intrusive and unwanted behaviour’ against Ms Glynn from December 2020 to February 2021.
Harper and Ms Glynn met as Merseyside Police officers and were in a six-year relationship before they married in 2018.
But Ms Glynn left the family home in December 2020 after she grew close to her work mentor Mr McLullich, an acting inspector at the time and formerly her supervising sergeant.
Giving evidence, Harper said he wanted ‘undeniable proof’ of the affair, which he said Ms Glynn had persistently denied.
Harper had been accused of assaulting Mr McLullich, a Merseyside Police Inspector, but was cleared of wounding (Picture: Bruce Adams/Daily Mail)
His intention was to pass the video to police as evidence of two serving officers having an inappropriate relationship during Covid lockdown restrictions, he said.
On Monday, Judge David Potter sentenced Harper to two years in jail, suspended for two years.
The judge told him he would have faced immediate custody but for the significant effect that imprisonment would have had on his elderly parents and youngest son.
His barrister told the court that Harper would lose his security job if jailed and would be unable to make his mortgage payments. His parents, who he informally cared for, would ‘not be able to cope’ and his son would have to give up his university studies.
Judge Potter told Harper: ‘I am sure you became obsessed to the point of criminality in stalking Stephanie Glynn to provide evidence of her affair to weaponise that against her for having that affair, and you also became determined to destroy the career of Andrew McLullich.
‘In that obsession the feelings, embarrassment and pain felt by Stephanie Glynn were collateral damage. You were more concerned about your own feelings and a raging sense of injustice.’
He said the events at Screwfix ‘do no credit to any of the people involved’ and the incident was ‘rash, foolish, selfish and unprofessional’.
Prosecutors said Harper could not accept the breakdown of his marriage to Stephanie Glynn (Picture: Lynda Roughley)
Judge Potter went on: ‘I am sure it has haunted them (Ms Glynn and Mr McLullich) and will continue to haunt them for many years.’
But he said their acts were ‘made worse’ by Harper filming them on his mobile phone.
He said: ‘It was a further gross example of stalking designed to maximise their humiliation to your advantage. Your conduct was intended to maximise fear or distress.
‘You resorted to stalking out of a sense of vengeance for being the victim of an affair. I am sure the distress caused to your victim has been very serious.’
But he added that there was ‘another side’ to the defendant who had no previous convictions, and had suffered mental trauma himself.
Harper, of Liscard, Wirral, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his Army service in the King’s Regiment and the Royal Military Police – before he joined Merseyside Police in 2001 – and also the circumstances of his arrest for stalking.
The court heard that Harper also became depressed after he was dismissed from Merseyside Police in April 2015 for gross misconduct – which he strenuously denied – over his failures to investigate an allegation of shoplifting ‘with due diligence’.
Harper was found guilty of aggravated stalking (Picture: Bruce Adams/Daily Mail)
Suzanne Payne, defending, said Harper’s behaviour against Ms Glynn was ‘out of character and borne out of the circumstances at that time’.
A pre-sentence report said he presented a ‘low risk’ of reoffending and a ‘medium risk’ of harm to Ms Glynn and Mr McLullich, she said.
She added that Ms Glynn had received a written warning over her conduct in the Screwfix car park.
Ms Glynn, now divorced, was said to be ‘sickeningly anxious’ as a result of Harper’s stalking and told the jury she ‘constantly looked over her shoulder’, had changed her routes to work and had undergone counselling.
The judge issued Harper with seven-year restraining orders from contacting or approaching Ms Glynn and Mr McLullich.
Harper must also perform 200 hours of unpaid work and complete 20 days of rehabilitation.
The Crown offered no evidence over an allegation that Harper unlawfully wounded Mr McLullich in the Screwfix car park after jurors could not reach a verdict on that charge.
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