Detective is charged with forging witness statement while investigating murder of Gretna Green wife who was stamped to death by abusive husband
- DC Robert Ferrow, of Hampshire Police, is accused of forging witness statement
- Charged with making a false instrument with intent for it to be accepted as real
- Mother-of-five Lucy-Anne Rushton was murdered in Andover in June 2019
- Shaun Dyson, 28, was jailed for life to serve minimum of 17 years for the murder
A detective has been charged with forging a witness statement in a murder investigation.
Detective Constable Robert Ferrow, of Hampshire Police, is accused of completing and signing the statement as part of the investigation into the death of mother-of-five Lucy-Anne Rushton in Andover in June 2019.
Ms Rushton’s husband Shaun Dyson, 28, was jailed for life to serve minimum of 17 years for the murder last December.
Detective Constable Robert Ferrow has been charged with making a false instrument with intent for it to be accepted as genuine, under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
A detective has been charged with forging a witness statement during the murder investigation of Lucy-Anne Rushton (right). Shaun Dyson, 28, (left) was jailed for her murder for 17 years
A spokesman for the police watchdog said: ‘It is alleged DC Ferrow completed and signed the statement of a witness during the investigation into the murder of Lucy-Anne Rushton.
‘Our investigation began in August 2019 and was completed in July 2020.
The couple married in 2010 when they eloped to Gretna Green but split up in January 2019
‘At the investigation’s conclusion, we referred a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which made the decision to charge the officer.’
Ferrow will appear at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court on December 18.
Last December Shaun Dyson, 28, was jailed for life to serve a minimum of 17 years at Winchester Crown Court for the murder of his estranged wife Ms Rushton at the family house in Andover, Hampshire, while children were at the property.
Simon Jones, prosecuting, said that Dyson had become ‘enraged’ by a phone call 30-year-old Ms Rushton received from a man she had been in a relationship with.
Dyson repeatedly stamped on Ms Rushton at her home.
Miss Rushton was found dead in her home in Andover, Hampshire, on June 23 last year
During his trial Dyson said he had known Ms Rushton since they were at school together and the couple married in 2010 after eloping to Gretna Green – but split in January last year because Dyson was ‘jealous and violent’.
Simon Jones, prosecuting, told the jury that the couple’s relationship was ‘toxic’ and there was a ‘history of domestic violence’.
With her children in the house, Dyson ordered her to swallow her wedding ring because they ‘were not together anymore’, just hours before murdering her in her home.
Just a week before the killing, Dyson – who a judge said sought to ‘control, harass, humiliate and frighten’ his ex – also pushed a lemonade bottle into her mouth and left her with a bloody fat lip.
His ‘extremely violent’ attack left Ms Rushton with 37 broken ribs, a fractured breastbone and collapsed lungs.
She also had more than 70 bruises and suffered a ‘miserable, wretched and drawn out death’.
The victim had been dead for ‘some time’ before Dyson decided to dial 999, initially claiming she was not breathing and had drowned.