Trial of Gwent police officer accused of sexual assault of a child ends in a hung jury.

A jury in the case of a serving Gwent police officer accused of a number of offences, including sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13, has failed to reach a verdict.

John Stringer, 41, denied all 5 charges against him, including showing explicit videos to the child and asking them to recreate them.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between the end of 2019 and mid 2021.

Throughout the trial, the jury heard how the abuse had come to light after the child told one of her primary school teaching assistants. The school then immediately notified South Wales Police and the child's parents. The court heard how the parents had no idea of this alleged abuse before this time.

The prosecution told the court that Stringer had shown the child explicit videos and told her to copy what she saw. This made the child 'uncomfortable', they later told police. They also said Stringer told them not to tell anyone, or he would get in trouble and it would be all their fault.

The court heard how Stringer would make frequent searches for porn sites on his mobile phone. When the phone was examined, there were over 4000 searches, accounting for one in every five internet searches on the device. However, no instances of indecent images of children were ever found.

The defence said Stringer had rarely been left alone with the child, and on the occasion he was, he informed the child's parents that it made him uncomfortable.#

After 6 and a half hours of deliberation, the jury told the judge they would not be able to reach a decision by a majority vote of at least 10-2.

The decision over whether a retrial will take place will be made on Friday 11th August

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