Force`s head of corporate support `hounded` PCC’s office lover after affair fell apart

A senior member of police staff who stalked his ex-mistress in a month-long campaign of revenge has been banned from contact and excluded from entering her street of residence. Married Nick Haverson was head of corporate support at Thames Valley Police (TVP) when he began the liaison with Charlotte Roberts – the executive assistant to the force`s police and crime commissioner Anthony Stansfeld. Ms Roberts said that she only wanted “a friendship”, Oxford Magistrates Court was told but the relationship progressed, revolving around sexual encounters in parks and lay-bys. When 18-month affair fell apart, Harverson refused to take no for an answer, repeatedly hounding her to take him back and making threats. District Judge Tim Pattinson imposed a 120-hour unpaid community order on Haverson as well as ordering the 58-year-old to pay £2,500 in costs. In addition, he was issued with a restraining order – banning him from contacting Ms Roberts or entering her street in Carterton, Oxfordshire, for a period of five years. Harverson was convicted on June 8 after denying a charge of stalking between November 16 and December 22 last year. They first met when she started her new job in December 2014 and within four months they were involved in a relationship. By March, she said, they met “every day. Before we started work, we met around coffee times, lunchtimes, after work, as much as we could”. The court had heard that Harverson and Ms Roberts eventually split up in October last year when she ended the relationship via a text message while he was visiting his sick mother in Devon, days after he had walked out on his wife to be with her. In messages Ms Roberts, 43, had told him that she loved him but just could not be with him. He bombarded Ms Roberts with messages and sent her a “nasty” and “manipulative” letter threatening to give evidence supporting a colleague who was suspected of harassing Ms Roberts after he had discovered the couple’s relationship. Harverson, who was employed by the force for more than 35 years – the final 12 of which he was the head of corporate support – tried to take his life in a hotel on November 22, the court heard. In sentencing, Judge Pattinson said Harverson`s actions had caused “anxiety and distress”, adding: “When you went to her flat and put a key in the door, she describes herself as being terrified of what you might do. She was particularly concerned when you appeared at the roadside and seemed to know what her working hours were. In short, she felt this was a form of manipulation and that’s a view I agree with.” The defendant needed “punishment rather than rehabilitation” the judge added.