The family of a retired police officer who was found to be sending 'homophonic, racist and misogynistic' texts exposed his vulgar messages after suffering decades of abuse and control at his hands. Ricky Jones, who previously worked at Gwent Police force until he retired, committed suicide two years ago, the Mirror reports.
His family shared inappropriate messages sent to some of colleagues from his phone and decided to go public after they claimed the 52-year-old manipulated and emotionally abused them for years. The disgusting texts also exposed other serving and retired officers discussing sexual harassment of junior female colleagues.
They also made racist comments as they referred to the Grenfell Tower as 'The Great Muslim Bakeoff', exchanged homophobic remarks and some officers were caught out offering to illegally hide cash. Sharon, whose name has been changed for protection, revealed how she was a victim of Jones.
Her daughter, Emma shared how terribly Jones treated her mother. The 55-year-old said: "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.”
The vile messages were uncovered three weeks ago in the The Sunday Times. Jones who met Sharon when he was just 19 went on to marry her five years later and the couple had three children together.
Sharon said: "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."
Sharon also confessed how she felt like she had no option but to remain in the relationship and could not report him because he was a cop and had connections with 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'.”
Emma confirmed that she saw the messages on his mobile that backed up his statements. She 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'".
Emma also revealed that her mother had tried to divorce Jones but that her father had gone to great lengths to ensure it wouldn't happen. Emma said: "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. 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.
The terrorised family said they believe Jones taking his own life was his final act of manipulation. They added that they found multiple recordings on his mobile phone where only Sharon sounded angry but it was a reaction of him purposely winding her up.
Sharon said: “There were texts to an inspector. Ricky had texted him and said he had 70 recordings of me”. They also found cruel messages where Jones had referred to Sharon as a 'drunken witch' and a 'f***ing bitch' implying that she was an awful mother.
Their issues continued even after Mr Jones' death as Sharon claims she was informed by an officer that she was going to be taken to a police station under caution to give a statement for her husband's inquest to confirm her supposed lack of cooperation. However, the family say she was never approached for one.
Emma says it's been difficult to delve into her father's messages but it was more important to provide answers and some form of justice. The family are looking to pursue legal advice to try and get more answers to their lost long list of unanswered questions and are fundraising money to do so. You can donate to their fund here.
Emma said: "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.
A spokesperson for Gwent Police said they are unable to comment on individual allegations but will be taking action against any officer or staff member found breaching their standards of behaviour regardless of their 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."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
