Exeter Crown Court reporter Ted Davenport writes for this title.

A former Avon and Somerset police officer has been jailed for sending photographs of a manslaughter victim’s body to family and friends.

Pc Lewis Wood was one of the first officers on the scene when Paul Wells was stabbed with a home-made spear in the garden of his home in Highbridge in June 2020 by his neighbour Richard Matthews, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

He was asked to take photographs of the scene on a police issue mobile phone but later copied them onto his own mobile and sent them to his father and a friend on WhatsApp, telling them to delete them after viewing.

Members of Mr Wells’ family travelled to Exeter Crown Court to see Wood being sent to jail and his sister-in-law Sarah read out a victim impact statement.

It said: “We are hurt. We are angry. We would like Wood to know that he has hurt our family more than he can comprehend. We cannot have closure because of his actions. It is a nightmare we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.

“These images were very private and have never even been seen by our family. We cannot be sure they will not be shared again. You have broken our trust and faith and broken the trust of the police force.”

Wood had been sharing video clips with a group of seven people for six months and had previously sent bodycam footage of himself arresting a child rape suspect and saving a man who threatened to jump off a roof.

He is a former Royal Signals Corps soldier who joined the Avon and Somerset force in May 2018 and started sharing confidential police data and images in December of that year.

He sent WhatsApp messages to his family to show off his work and tell them about the sort of challenges he faced. He was rewarded with replies such as ‘we’re proud of you’ on a couple of occasions.

Wood made disparaging comments about the victims of crime. He finished two messages with the words ‘that’s the crazy world we live in’.

He was caught after colleagues seized and examined his phone and computer in October 2020 and found the images of Mr Wells and the other WhatsApp messages. In all, he distributed 11 video clips or still images over a year and ten months.

Wood, aged 43, of Bridgwater, admitted three counts of misconduct in public office and was jailed for two years and four months by Judge James Adkins at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: “The victim impact statement showed why this behaviour is so abhorrent. At a time when a family were at rock bottom and their lives had been turned upside down, it turns out that those tasked with bringing the perpetrator to justice were sharing photographs .

“It was grossly humiliating and caused great anguish and has the potential to have a corrosive effect in the public’s trust in the police generally.”

The judge said that the comments which Wood had made about complainants were ‘unprofessional and unacceptable’.

Mr Richard Posner, prosecuting, said Wood downloaded images and bodycam footage onto his own computer and phone while off duty and sent them to a small group of family and friends.

The most serious was the images of Mr Wells, but other incidents included a man who was talked down while threatening to jump off a roof, a domestic argument where a man was arrested for attacking his partner, the arrest of a suspect accused of rape and a drug driver who was arrested after a crash.

A man who was arrested and released without charge for the domestic assault also read an impact statement saying he had been so shocked by learning what had happened caused him to lose his job and home and he found it ‘humiliating and despicable’.

Mr Simon Burns, defending, said had mental health issues which meant he was wholly unsuitable to work for the police and he sent the messages because he was seeking support from family and friends.

He had been particularly upset by seeing the scene and his messages showed that he was struggling to cope with that he had witnessed.

He is extremely remorseful and has written a letter of apology to Mr Wells’s family.

Avon and Somerset Police say Wood’s employment ended in February 2021.

Assistant Chief Constable Joanne Hall said: "We worked with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and we have through significant investigations charged Wood with three offences. As a result of that, he will never work in policing or have a role in policing now or ever again."