Dead officer's family explain why they made public his horrific messages (original) (raw)

The messages that were found on retired cop Ricky Jones' phone after his death were horrific. Homophobic, racist, demeaning of women and possibly corrupt, they have led to a UK-wide scandal. The force where he had worked until his retirement, Gwent Police, is now battling to persuade the public it was just a few "bad apples" as an investigation is held.

Those messages were found by his family after the 52-year-old jumped to his death two years ago. They spoke to WalesOnline about why they have put the messages in the public domain and the decades of domestic abuse and control they suffered from him while he presented the image of a model officer to the world.

The revelations from Jones' family, which first appeared in the Sunday Times three weeks ago, have already led to four serving officers being suspended and calls for a wider more independent investigation to be held, beyond the probe already being undertaken into Gwent Police by the Wiltshire force.

Jones' family's bravery in their willingness to expose their personal suffering to the world has led to a spotlight being thrown on the force's wider problems. Other former officers have described being hounded out of the force by sexism as well as describing a boys club culture in which the problems festered. You can see more details of the messages shared between officers here, as well as the story of one abusive Gwent Police officer Clark Joslyn here.

Jones' widow Sharon, 55, a nurse, says she was the victim of Jones' manipulation at home for decades. He undermined her and demeaned her in front of her family and friends to the point where she started to question whether she was to blame. We've changed Sharon and her daughter's name at their request.

“It wasn't an instant thing,” Sharon told WalesOnline. “He'd started talking to my family, saying that I was screaming and shouting and they had started thinking that maybe he had a point. I noticed that my neighbours would be looking the other way when I was getting in the car and things like that. I asked him if he was saying things about me to people, and he said that it was my imagination.”

What she describes is akin to the classic abuser's tool of gaslighting - manipulating someone into doubting her own sanity to control and isolate them. It was clear when Sharon’s oldest daughter Emma went through his phone, that Ricky, who had several secret affairs, knew exactly what he was doing. He would tell Sharon he was good and honourable while she was a bad person.

Former Gwent Police officer Ricky Jones

Former Gwent Police officer Ricky Jones

“On the phone, he was bragging to one of his mistresses,” explained Emma. He was saying that he had been around to all the neighbours and to family members. He used to do this thing as well where he would wind my mam up. He would say things to her like she was a bad mother, she was lazy, she was slovenly, she was dirty and that's why the children were dirty. And then when he got her in a place where she was shouting back, he would start opening the windows. And it was so that neighbours could hear my mother shouting. He was a very intelligent man.”

Jones had met Sharon when he was 19 years old and they married five years later and had three children. But it was not a happy marriage.

He developed disturbing obsessions. One was that his wife and children were unhygienic. It culminated in lots of ways including taking pictures of his youngest daughters used sanitary products to try and suggest she was unclean like how her mother was portrayed.

Sharon said: “I remember when my two older girls got head lice, not because they're dirty but because you sometimes get an outbreak in school. He wouldn't go anywhere near the children for three weeks whilst I was trying to treat this head lice. He would make sure he would separate himself from everybody so that he wouldn't get the head lice and then he would make us wear shower caps in the daytime. I know it all seems ridiculous. But when you're in it, and during the same period when I'm being told that I'm hanging the washing on the line in the wrong way and I am leaving shoes to deliberately trip him, I sometimes had to try and toe the line with him because otherwise I would be arguing permanently with him.

“He wasn't physically abusive to me. But he did used to spit at me. But he would come right up close to my face. And he would deliberately enunciate words, so that there was spit coming out at me. And I would say 'stop spitting at me' and then he would tell me I was wrong and that he wasn't spitting.

“He always had an answer for absolutely everything. And then you start to think you're going mad? And I did. Towards the end, I did think I was mad, and I did think that I was a bad, bad person. It took me a long time to realise that I'm not.”

Sharon was deeply affected by her husband’s abuse and says she did all she could to shield her three children from their father. But as is very common in cases of domestic violence, it was very hard for her to get support because of how Jones had isolated her and destroyed her confidence. However, it was doubly hard, because Jones was a police officer.

He worked in police stations in Abertillery town and Newport central, in armed response and as a traffic officer. He had connections throughout the force.

Sharon said: “I remember one day going to him and telling him that I was going to report him to the police. He came downstairs the next day, because I always slept on the sofa, and told me 'don't bother going into the police station because I've been in and I sorted it. I've been and I've told them to expect you coming in and not to believe the words you say'.”

Evidence on Mr Jones’ phone showed how far he had gone to stop any allegation being made against him. Emma said: “When I went through the phone after my father died, obviously I found loads of stuff to do with our case as well as the wider corruption In Gwent Police. He told two different people that he had been in to see an inspector within the force about my mother to stop her reporting him because he said he 'needed to protect himself', as the law 'will always look initially on the side of the female'.

“He also said that he was worried that, though my mother couldn't report him, that her parents might do something. While he was retired, he said that he was hoping to run internal police checks to check for any allegations made against him. We don't know whether he managed to do it, whether he did it himself, or whether he got somebody else to do it.”

Obviously it would be illegal for such a check to take place. Wiltshire Police is conducting an independent investigation on behalf of Gwent into the toxic culture in the force. Sharon and Emma have asked Wiltshire Police to look into the fact that Ricky Jones may have had others check the internal systems.

She said: “It is something that we've queried now with Wiltshire Police. So hopefully they can look into that. But our argument would be that if the police can do all this stuff; racism, misogyny, homophobia, corruption, what stops them now lying and saying that they've checked the police records and no checks were done? How do I know that they're telling the truth?”

With the police not a viable option for getting out of her abusive relationship, Sharon sought a divorce. Sharon's mother gave her a small slip of paper with the address and details of a divorce lawyer she had arranged an appointment with. Though this was hidden in her handbag, a picture of this slip of paper was found on her husband’s phone after her death.

He clearly went to great lengths to stop Sharon getting a divorce. “I went through my father’s papers after he died,” said Emma. He had been going to solicitors to see what would happen if they did get a divorce because my dad was retired and my mom was still working. My youngest sister was under 16 and the advice said if my youngest sister stayed with my mother, they would be 60/40 or 70/30 split in the divorce. My mother would keep the house, and that absolutely infuriated him.

“When I went through his device, I found that he had been to every solicitor in the area that dealt with divorce or actions against the police and he had created a conflict of interest. He sought advice, so he used those free consultations to say my mother was abusive, so when my mother approached them they said they couldn’t represent her because there was a conflict of interest.”

Sharon added: “One time when I told him that I was going to get a divorce from him he got really upset and he started crying and said, 'I promise I'll change'. I'd heard all this before off him. What people have got to understand is that he was the father of my three children. I just wanted him to be a good dad, and a good husband. I wasn't looking for anybody else.”

Sharon always had the feeling, created by Jones, that he was always one step ahead of her, knowing things about her life and plans. “I felt that he'd always got the upper hand, that he could always outsmart me and always do something to me.”

Emma explained how, following his death, she had discovered how her father had done this. She said: “At that point she felt that he would always outsmart her, but she didn't know why or how he could do it. But then when he died, we went through the device and he had had all our mom's letters, NHS records, digital passwords and emails. He was reading and checking everything, he had access to all our digital devices. For example my mam had opened a joint account 15 years previously with him and he was running up debt on it. But her bank card for that joint account was hidden upstairs.”

They believe Jones' death was his final manipulation. His last words to Sharon were “I’m going to publicly humiliate you”. They believe that, knowing how the inquest process works after someone's death, he had engineered it so she would be humiliated if he took his own life.

He had done a lot of ground work over the previous years to paint Sharon, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, in as negative a light as possible. He gathered dozens of recordings where the family say he would wind her up, leave the room, and then come in speaking reasonably while Sharon was still angry. The evidence was spread around waiting to be uncovered in the inquest process, as Jones would have known it would be.

“There were texts to an inspector,” on his phone, said Sharon. “Ricky had text him and said he had 70 recordings of me”. Phone messages show how him calling Sharon “a f***ing bitch” and “a drunken witch” — portraying her as an evil mother.

The family say that even after Mr Jones’ death they encountered serious issues. Sharon claims she was told by an officer she was going to be taken to a police station under caution to provide a statement for her husband’s inquest citing her supposed lack of cooperation but the family say she was never asked for one. This is part of a long list of unanswered questions the family has. They are looking to pursue legal advice to try and get these answers and are trying to fundraise to do that. You can donate to their fund here.

Clearly the suicide of a parent, whatever their relationship is immensely tough on any child. Emma has not found it easy to go through her dad’s previous messages. But why has she?

“Several reasons,” said Emma. “The first reason is that my mam stood between my dad and us three kids. She was the one that protected us from him. And then when he died, his abuse should have ended but the police have just picked up where he left off. This means that she doesn't have any chance at all at a normal happy life, because they have just continued that abuse and so that needs to be corrected.

“But on the other side of things, what we've learned from my mam's case is there's no escape. If you are the victim of a police abuser there's no escape for you. You don't get any help from the police. And then, through finding all the misogyny on the phone, I've come to realise that this has happened to loads of other women as well. What we've done is expose all of this. What I want is to show how much of a problem this is and that something needs to be done, it needs to be learned from, this can't happen again.”

Anger at the PCC

Gwent PCC Jeff Cuthbert

Gwent PCC Jeff Cuthbert

Sharon and Emma have expressed their anger at Jeff Cuthbert, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent Police. The role of PCC is to make the force accountable to the public. However in a recent BBC Wales interview he said that the family were “refusing” to talk to the force. Emma actively disputes this and accuses him of prioritising protecting the force instead of holding them accountable.

She told WalesOnline: “He's elected to represent the people and is supposed to represent us as a family and liaise with Gwent Police. The general feeling that we've had for him since the beginning, is that he was more interested in defending Gwent Police as opposed to looking after us and doing what he should be really. I have sent a letter to him and Pam Kelly, because of comments that he made on Sunday.

“The interviewer asked him whether Gwent Police had reacted as soon as they were made aware of our claims and he said that he couldn't answer the question because the family, meaning us, were refusing to speak to Gwent Police

“To us that seems as though we're being discredited. And it paints us as uncooperative when actually, I would argue that more than cooperative and that uncovering this evidence has actually helped contribute towards positive change in Gwent Police. We don't want any thanks but please don't discredit.

“I think this is a massive issue. I think the issues that we've raised, alongside other women coming forward over the last sort of decade, does paint the picture that there is an issue with cultural Gwent Police. It's not a couple of bad apples.

“I think Jeff Cuthbert has also said that when you say it is more than just a couple of bad apples, you're painting the whole force and every officer as misogynistic or racist or corrupt. But in our view it is not casting doubt over every police officer, it is just raising awareness.

“We haven't heard back yet, perhaps he will come back and say “sorry I misspoke”. But we are concerned this could be the start of a wider campaign to discredit us.”

We approached Jeff Cuthbert for comment but he said he had written to the family in response to their concerns and did not want to comment further.

A spokesperson from Gwent Police said they could not comment on individual allegations but took professional standards of behaviour extremely seriously and would take action against any officer or staff member breaching them regardless of rank.

The force said: "We continue to be horrified by the allegations that have emerged to date. We are committed to taking action and we have suspended four officers and placed another officer on restricted duties.

"The IOPC are now leading on the investigation, and we are therefore unable to comment further on the ongoing matter."

Chief Constable Pam Kelly said: “I am clear that we are determined to challenge and remove those who do not uphold our values.”

Support for survivors of sexual abuse is available from many different charities and organisations. The following non-exhaustive list includes contact details for services that may help if you've been affected by the issues raised in this article.

Lifecentre

The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC)

One in Four

Safeline

The Survivors Trust

Rape Crisis England & Wales

READ NEXT: