A POLICE officer who was suspected of harassing his estranged wife claims he did not wipe evidence from devices following his arrest.

Gwent PC Stephen Smith, 32, is accused of remotely deleting information which proved he was harassing his policewoman wife after she left him for a colleague.

Smith was arrested on suspicion of harassment in April, and had both his iPad and iPhone 4 confiscated as part of the investigation.

Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard that within 30 minutes of being released on bail he remotely wiped evidence by using his online Apple account to reset the device to its factory settings.

But Timothy Evans, defending, accused police officers of trying to unlock the iPad in front of him while he was held in the cells at Merthyr Tydfil police station.

Officers allegedly told Smith to give them his four-digit pin code, but after 10 wrong attempts the device became disabled, Mr Evans said.

And he suggested Smith could not have remotely wiped his device because it had deactivated after the number of failed attempts to unlock it.

Mr Evans said: "I suggest this device was disabled because someone had put in 10 failed attempts to unlock it.

"Experts have said someone put in 10 failed attempts. And it remained disabled months later."

Mr Evans accused police officer DC Richard Scrivens of ringing up Smith's father, Steve Smith, the morning after his son's release to ask for his Apple account passwords to access information remotely.

Mr Evans claimed he rang up his father and said the iPad was disabled.

DC Scrivens replied: "I certainly did not say that. The purpose of the conversation was to give him an opportunity to give the correct codes.

"I did not have the code for it and no further attempts were made on the device."

The police officer also denied telling a colleague the iPad had been wiped before it had been sent off to a technical support unit to be analysed.

Smith, of Dukestown, Tredegar, denies two charges of perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.