A POLICE CONSTABLE from Barry has been found guilty of grievous bodily harm after an incident that led to his wife suffering serious back injuries.
PC Huw Orphan, 31, was convicted of grievous bodily harm following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court. The court heard how Orphan’s wife, Amy Burley, who is also a police officer, sustained a broken back in the incident, which took place during the early hours of 8th April 2020.
Ms Burley told the court it resulted in ongoing pain and that she had struggled to play with her children.
The court heard the altercation took place when Orphan returned to their home in Barry following a late shift with Gwent Police. Earlier in the evening, the couple sent one another a series of texts about food and other matters.
The couple were arguing on the stairs and Orphan told the court his wife had thrown a child seat at him and, as he climbed the stairs, she grabbed his leg, causing him to stumble.
Orphan denied inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and told the court that he had not meant to make contact with his wife or cause her any harm but was instead trying to jump up the stairs to put some distance between them and that his leg had accidentally made contact with her.
When questioned on the details of the incident, Orphan acknowledged that in doing this his leg made contact with his partner’s waist causing her to fall down the stairs but denied that it was deliberate.
Orphan told the court he “probably could and should have done more” to take the heat out of the argument.
The prosecution put it to Orphan that he was making up the story about accidentally catching Ms Burley with his leg, and that instead he had lost his temper and deliberately kicked his wife causing her to “fly backwards” down the stairs and break her back.
During his evidence, Orphan told the court his relationship with Ms Burley began around April or May 2018 and that they married and moved into a house his wife was renting in Newport the following summer.
Orphan described the early days of the couple’s relationship as “very positive” but said that it had deteriorated over time. He added that by the time the couple moved to Barry in February 2020, the relationship was “in tatters”.
The prosecution also questioned Orphan about an assault on 25 January 2020, before the couple moved to Barry, where they put it to him that he had assaulted Ms Burley by grabbing her and throwing her to the floor after an argument about sterilising baby bottles. Orphan claimed he did so to “neutralise the risk to me, to her, and to the children”.
The jury found Orphan not guilty of the charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but found him guilty of the lesser charge of causing grievous bodily harm. He was also found guilty of causing actual bodily harm during the earlier incident before the couple moved to Barry.
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told Orphan a pre-sentence report would be requested to provide her with information on his background.
The judge gave Orphan unconditional bail until his sentencing hearing on 25th October.
Orphan’s LinkedIn profile lists his most recent role as being a Family Liaison Officer for Gwent Police between April 2019 and March 2020.
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