Newbury's former top cop pleads innocence

Chief Supt Jim Trotman has denied charges of arson, perverting the course of justice and two counts of fraud

NEWBURY'S former police chief faced his accusers today (Wednesday) and insisted he was innocent of all charges against him.

A jury at Swindon Crown Court has heard how Chief Supt Jim Trotman allegedly torched his own car, allowing his mistress' innocent husband to take the blame while making a fraudulent insurance claim.

He denies charges of arson, perverting the course of justice and two counts of fraud.

Meanwhile, intimate details emerged of the private life of the 45-year-old father-of-two who, the court heard, could one day have become a chief constable.

He told jurors he met his lover Karin Gray, wife of London lawyer Ian Gray, on Illicit Encounters - a website for married people seeking extra-affairs.

However, months into the clandestine relationship, he began receiving sinister emails from a mysterious sender warning that the home Mrs Gray shared with her husband at Bedswell Heath, Boars Hill, “remains out of bounds for you Mr Trotman."

Another told Chief Supt Trotman that the sender had got his details from the “Boars Hill Swingers Association” and claimed to be aware that the officer had impregnated Mrs Gray, resulting in a termination.

The jury has heard that detectives subsequently traced the emails to school teacher Kai Reeves - the fiance of a fellow parent at Mrs Gray's childrens' school who resented her relationship with Chief Supt Trotman and who had made a silent phone call to her.

The prosecution allege that Chief Supt Trotman, who is separated from his wife, doused his Citroen Picasso in petrol before setting it ablaze near Mrs Gray's home on October 20, 2009.

The jury heard that, much earlier in the day, the senior officer had told colleague Det Supt Ashley Smith he had been having a 20-month affair with a married woman.

Fiona Elder, prosecuting, said Chief Supt Trotman, who lives at Abingdon Marina, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, had used a Thames Valley Police computer system to research a number of car fires that had taken place close to the home of his lover and had used his computer, the day before the fire, to research Audi motorcars.

The court heard that he subsequently bought an Audi A4 convertible with the £19,700 insurance money.

Chief Supt Trotman said he had confided in a colleague - Det Supt Ashley Smith - at Thames Valley Police's professional standards department that he and Mrs Gray had been having an affair, and that the pair of them had received threatening emails.

The 45-year-old told the court: “I did not set fire to my car and I find it inconceivable that people would think I have. I accept there is a case to answer - it's my car, it was my petrol can and I was having an affair and the service needed to look into the circumstances....what was Jim Trotman doing?”

However, he added: “I'm an angry man - this has had a huge impact on my life.”

Cross examined by John Beggs, defending, Det Supt Ashley Smith, who subsequently investigated his colleague, denied targetting him while ignoring other suspects because he wanted to “retire thinking ‘I have got the scalp of a senior officer.'”

Chief Supt Trotman worked in Newbury as local police area commander for three-and-a-half years before leaving for Oxford in 2005.

The trial continues.