Former Met and West Mercia Police constable Mark Cranfield sent social media messages, including one discussing his sex life, to the highly vulnerable woman, a two-week trial was told.
Cranfield, who was based at Ludlow police station in Shropshire, was convicted in December of two counts of misconduct in public office and an offence of accessing computer records, including the woman’s phone number, without authorisation.
Cranfield told his trial that he had no sexual interest in the woman and believed he had deleted the images and video, which were found on his work phone more than two years after the inquiry.
Cranfield, of Bromfield, near Ludlow, denied he had been “titillated” by the video, said he had contacted the woman via a social media messaging app to discuss “everyday” issues and had only sent further messages in a panic because his wife wrongly believed he was having an affair.
Judge Maylin told Cranfield, who appeared in the dock with his head bowed for much of his sentencing hearing: “She told this court that you seemed more interested in the content of the photos and the video of an intimate nature than in supporting (her) and investigating the allegations that she made.
