NOT GUILTY: Policeman Cleared Of Harassing WPC Ex

Cleared: Stuart House

A police officer convicted of harassing his WPC ex with drunken early hours abusive phone calls and texts during an ongoing money row cleared his name yesterday, having already beaten a fraud charge she brought.

PC Stuart House, 34, of International Way, Sunbury-on-Thames admits he called 26 year-old Nickala Halse a: 'P****' in a 2.45am text and followed-up with: 'I wonder if I will f*** with someone more intelligent than me, my family, haha' and: 'Dry your eyes angel.'

This was after two calls, the second of which she amplified on speakerphone for the benefit of her new boyfriend, Police Sergeant Steve Behan, 37, who backed-up her account in court.

PC House, who is based at Hounslow Police Station, was found guilty at Ealing Magistrates Court of harassing Nickala on September 21, 2013 and received a conditional discharge, but that conviction was overturned yesterday after an Isleworth Crown Court appeal.

Nickala, who with PS Behan is based at Uxbridge Police Station, told the court from behind a curtain: "He rang me to speak about car insurance and we spoke about other financial things.

"He started shouting at me so I put the phone down. He called me a: 'Little b****' and a: 'C***' and he had been texting my dad with abuse before this.

"I previously changed my number and my email so he could not contact me."

Nickala Halse & Steve Behan

The couple had lived together, but split after two or three years in September, 2012 and because PC House was still on her insurance Nickala was billed for his car cover and wanted to be reimbursed.

That prompted an angry exchange of texts with PC House writing: "Sounds like you're trying to work out an offence probie. You won't find one."

Nickala says the word 'probie' was used as a reference to her still being a probationary police officer, after previously being a PCSO. "It was used in a patronising tone."

However, the insurance dispute did result in PC House, the son of a retired police chief-inspector and whose brother is also a serving officer, being charged with fraud, but he was acquitted of the allegation at the Ealing trial.

Nickala added: "Stuart had been drinking that evening. He was drunk on the phone earlier when he called at 10.30pm." She claimed he called her a: "C***" at least half a dozen times during the early hours phone call.

"It was quite upsetting, I felt really stressed out. It took a lot for me to go to the police and report it, I couldn't cope with the stress anymore.

"I felt it was constantly threats all the time, not physical, but he would do stuff financially. He always made me feel stupid all the time."

PC House feels Nickala did not pay her fair share of domestic bills when they lived together and it was his case the couple often exchanged abusive texts, with his ex giving as good as she got.

Judge Phillip Matthews ruled the two phone calls and three texts did not amount to harassment.

"Those words in the phone call did upset the complainant and those texts were certainly not polite and added to the complainant's feeling of being upset.

"The behaviour was improper, but falls far short of amounting to a course of conduct causing alarm and distress."

PC House faces internal police disciplinary proceedings next week.