A POLICE officer who became “fixated” with a married man, hacked his social media accounts and posted slurs about his wife, a court heard.

Ashley Boyd, 26, developed an obsession with Kevin O’Connor who is married to her former friend, and sent messages to his friends pretending to be him about his “unhappy marriage”.

She changed his relationship status on Facebook to “single” and posted an offensive comment about his wife Rhona on his Twitter account, as him.

Boyd even had a friend give a false statement to police taking the blame for the Twitter post in a twisted attempt to divert the blame.

On Wednesday at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Boyd, from Moodiesburn, North Lanarkshire pleaded guilty to “engaging in a course of conduct which caused Rhona and Kevin O’Connor fear and alarm” by stalking, between June and September last year.

She also admitted a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The court heard there was “absolutely no romantic or sexual relationship” between Mr O’Connor and Boyd.

Procurator fiscal depute Andrew Beadsworth said: “Boyd appears to have become fixated upon Kevin O’Connor.”

Mrs O’Connor became friends with Boyd when they worked in Boots store, although the friendship had deteriorated by the end of 2013.

Boyd resigned in March 2015 and joined Police Scotland later that year. She resigned from the force in December 2016.

Police investigated the IP address used to access the Facebook account which lead to Boyd’s mobile number.

Sentence was deferred until next month and her bail was continued.

Sheriff Paul Crozier told her: “Do not take that as indication whatsoever what might happen to you in due course.”