Ex-cop punched inspector he caught having sex with his wife in Screwfix car park, court told

A former police officer has claimed he acted in self-defence when he punched an inspector who he caught having sex with his wife, a jury has heard.

Gavin Harper, 45, had placed a tracking device on the car driven by his wife, policewoman Stephanie Glynn, because he said he suspected her of having an affair.

He followed her to a Screwfix car park in Birkenhead, Merseyside, where he found her having sex with her colleague, Andrew McLullich, 42, on the back seat on the evening of 16 February 2021, Liverpool Crown Court was told.

There, Harper is said to have begun filming the police colleagues on his mobile phone before, he claimed, Mr McLullich started punching him “repeatedly”.

The court was told security officer Harper, from Liscard, Wirral, punched him back “three, four times” in self-defence.

Harper, a former police constable, is now on trial, accused of unlawfully wounding Mr McLullich and stalking Ms Glynn, 40, between December 2020 and February 2021.

In court on Tuesday, Harper told his barrister, Suzanne Payne, he did not drive to the car park with the intention of fighting the inspector.

When asked what he went there for, Harper said: “Get undeniable proof they were having an affair, a sexual affair, by videoing it and then giving it to the police.”

He said the purpose of getting the proof was because they were two serving officers having an affair during COVID.

Harper said Mr McLullich “leg-sweeped” him and then his wife, who he claimed was naked from the waist down apart from her socks, said to “get his phone, get his phone”.

Harper said that in the struggle that followed Ms Glynn then “started kicking him”.

He told the jury: “That’s probably the worse thing about it.”

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The Crown says that Ms Glynn began a sexual relationship with Mr McLullich after she left Harper but he could not accept the marriage breakdown.

Instead, the prosecution says, he became obsessed, and it was he who began attacking Mr McLullich in the Screwfix car park including striking him twice in the head with a torch.

The court heard how Harper placed a tracker with a microphone in the vehicle and listened in on their conversation after he went through Ms Glynn’s phone and became suspicious of the pair.

At one point he called up Mr McLullich using Ms Glynn’s phone to confront him.

The trial continues.