Downfall of the Jekyll and Hyde PC
A DISGRACED policeman convicted of waging a terrifying harassment campaign against his policewoman lover has walked free from court.
PC James Curtis had been warned he faced jail after deliberately tormenting PC Donna Brand with “twisted mind games” while both were serving the force in West Norfolk.
But at Lincoln Crown Court on Tuesday, the 37-year-old, of Marsh Road, Terrington St Clement, was sentenced to 180-hours unpaid work in the community.
His future with the Norfolk police force, however, remains in limbo.
He is currently suspended from his role as a response police officer based at Lynn, but no final decision will be made until the outcome of his application to be given leave to appeal against his conviction has been determined.
During the trial, the court heard how “Jekyll-and-Hyde character” Curtis subjected PC Brand to his “controlling behaviour” during their stormy 18-month relationship.
He attacked his fellow officer, repeatedly threatened to kill himself and boasted that he and his ex-wife had secretly been enjoying sex acts.
‘BIZARRE’
Curtis was convicted by a jury of harassment and a second offence of causing a danger to road users, after suddenly pulling on the handbrake of PC Brand’s car as she was driving along the A17 at around 60mph.
Sentencing Curtis, Judge Michael Heath told him he drank too much alcohol while on medication for depression following a car crash.
“The violence you used was minimal but the offence of which you were convicted was of putting her in fear of violence by harassment,” he said.
“You certainly drank far too much and that was a contributary factor in the way you behaved which, on a number of occasions, was self-centred and emotionally-immature.”
The couple first met in 2004, while both were working at the Terrington Beat Base in Terrington St John.
Giving evidence at the trial, PC Brand said she was “head-over-heels in love" with Curtis but admitted his mood-swings prompted him to play “silly mind-games”.
She told how on the same day of the handbrake incident, they argued at home and he poured water over her head after marching her into the kitchen as if she was a police suspect.
Curtis eventually moved out of the pair’s home and later sent PC Brand a text message to say he had removed his belongings from the property.
But when she returned she found the house in disarray.
‘volatile’
She said all the cupboards had been emptied, the heating turned up to 30 degrees and the freezer had been emptied – destroying 100 of frozen food.
Michael Cranmer-Brown, prosecuting, told the court Curtis could be “volatile and somewhat unstable” and when his medication was combined with drinking he was “something of a Jekyll and Hyde character”.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for King's Lynn
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
