A legal professional has been handed an 18-month suspended sentence for using her position at the Crown Prosecution Service to access information to help her criminal boyfriend.
Kiera Greenslade of Luton worked as a paralegal at CPS Thames and Chiltern when the offences took place around four years ago. She resigned from the organisation in February 2022.
The CPS said Greenslade, who is now 27, had used the service’s internal database to find and send a picture of her then-boyfriend’s Police National Computer record in November 2021.
Weeks later, Greenslade accessed a case file and sent a screenshot of information relating to her boyfriend and the police investigation into him from the CPS secure Case Management System.
As part of a subsequent probe, police searched Greenslade’s home and seized her mobile phone, laptops and other CPS property.
It emerged that around the time of the offences Greenslade had messaged her boyfriend to tell him she had looked through “hundreds of cases in North London” and checked listings to see if he was appearing in any remand courts.
Greenslade pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and on Friday last week she was handed a six-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Southwark Crown Court. She will also be required to attend 15 days of rehabilitation training as part of the sentence.
The CPS said its CMS carried a warning for all users that cases can only be accessed for legitimate business needs and that, for security purposes, staff must not take screenshots or share recordings of the pages.
A CPS spokesperson said Greenslade had abused her position as a paralegal to try and help a man who was suspected of – and who went on to be convicted of – a serious criminal offence.
“She ignored warnings on the login page which clearly tells users you can only access case files for a legitimate business purpose or with the authorisation of your line manager,” the spokesperson said.
“While cases like this are extremely rare, the CPS will not stand idly by and allow anyone, including our own staff, to abuse a position of power to benefit criminals.”