A former police officer accused of assaulting an inspector after catching him having sex with his wife told jurors he was acting in self-defence.
Gavin Harper, 45, found Stephanie Glynn, 40, and Andrew McLullich, 42, in a Screwfix car park in Birkenhead, Merseyside, late on February 16, 2021.
He insisted he was ‘not going there for violence’ but to film the Merseyside Police colleagues and report them to bosses for ‘having an affair during Covid’.
Harper said he told the pair ‘I’ve got you now’ before being punched and ‘leg-sweeped’ by the inspector, who he claimed hit him again in a ‘rage’ for ‘saying something derogatory about his penis’ while his wife – naked from the waist down apart from a pair of socks – kicked him.
Giving evidence at Liverpool Crown Court he told jurors: ‘That’s probably the worse thing about it.
‘I was thinking how has my life gone from being happily married to being on a Screwfix car park having the s**t kicked out of me by my wife.’
The security officer is on trial charged with unlawfully wounding Mr McLullich and stalking Ms Glynn for two months before the attack.
Prosecutors say he could not accept the breakdown of his marriage and attacked Mr McLullich after becoming ‘obsessed with catching them in the act’.
Harper said he initially became suspicious about the pair when he noticed his wife’s car phone call history had ‘lots of calls’ from Mr McLullich.
He said Ms Glynn told him she was his mentor at work and he was helping her through her police sergeant’s exam. He told the court: ‘I knew something was going on but I couldn’t prove it. I would repeatedly ask her and she said “it’s in your head, it’s in your head”.’
Harper said he decided to activate the microphone on the vehicle tracker and move it from the boot to underneath the driver’s seat which enabled him to listen in real-time from an app on his phone.
He said one conversation between the pair confirmed his suspicions.
Harper said: ‘They were talking about a previous night shift when they had met up and they had some sort of sexual activity, and they were laughing about who was going to sit in the wet patch of the police car.
‘I was upset. I now knew something was going on but I didn’t have anything concrete to say anything to her because she would just deny it.’
He went on to download her Snapchat phone history on to his device and discovered an ‘absolutely massive amount’ of messaging between the pair, he said.
Harper said he used his ex-wife’s phone to call Mr McLullich.
The defendant said: ‘He said “hi gorgeous” and I said “it’s Gav, Steph’s husband”. There was then a pause and then “oh s**t”.
‘He begged me not to tell the police and not to inform them what had been going on. He implied he and Steph would lose their jobs.
‘He begged me not to tell his wife and not to spoil his children’s Christmas.’
Harper said Mr McLullich denied he had slept with Ms Glynn but admitted there were ‘inappropriate messages and videos and he agreed they were disgusting’.
The defendant said he ‘took a chance’ on the pair being present at the car park by looking at previous tracker data from his ex-wife’s vehicle and their work shift patterns.
He said his ex-wife was aware a tracker had been installed as an anti-theft measure but told the jury that no tracker was in place on the night of February 16.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, he told his barrister, Suzanne Payne, that he did not drive to the car park with the intention of fighting the inspector.
He said: ‘I was not going there for violence.’
Ms Payne asked: ‘What did you think you needed to do?’
Harper replied: ‘Get undeniable proof they were having an affair, a sexual affair, by videoing it and then giving it to the police.’
Ms Payne said: ‘For what purpose?’
Harper said: ‘That two serving officers were having an affair during Covid.’
He said that as he approached Mr McLullich’s car he could see he was ‘clearly having sex with someone’, adding: ‘I looked through the window and I could see he was in fact having sex with Steph.’
Asked why he then opened the rear passenger door as he filmed on his mobile phone, he told the court: ‘To get better footage I suppose. So that they knew I had the undeniable proof of what they were doing.’
Ms Payne asked: ‘Was anything said?’
The defendant said: ‘I can’t remember what exactly I said. It was something along the lines of “I’ve got you now, I’ve caught you now”. Steph screamed and said “it’s Gav”. I was upset but weirdly relieved.’
Ms Payne said: ‘Were you angry?’
Harper, from Liscard, Wirral, said: ‘No, far from it.’
He said Mr McLullich started punching him ‘repeatedly’.
Ms Payne asked: ‘You tried to defend yourself?’
Harper said: ‘I did punch him – three, four times.’
Ms Payne said: ‘Did you carry on defending yourself?’
The defendant replied: ‘No. I didn’t have the energy for one thing. I was not there for that.’
He said he was then ‘leg-sweeped’ by the inspector and was punched again as he lay on the floor.
Harper said his wife, who he said was naked from the waist down apart from her socks, told Mr McLullich to ‘get his phone, get his phone’.
He said in the struggle that followed Ms Glynn then ‘started kicking him’.
Harper said he later took his phone out of his pocket and started taking ‘loads of still pictures’.
The defendant said: ‘I said something derogatory about his (Mr McLullich’s) penis. He didn’t like that. He flew into a rage and he punched me a couple more times to the face.
‘Steph got between us and he stopped it.’
The trial continues on Wednesday.
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