UPDATE: 4pm

Stephen Smith, of Cwrt Pen-y-Twyn, Dukestown, Tredegar, denied two counts of perverting the course of justice.

The jury took less than 30 minutes to clear him of both charges

11am

A GWENT police officer accused of destroying evidence after being interviewed for harassing his wife had actually attended the wedding of the man with whom she had an affair.

Tredegar man Stephen Anthony Smith, 32, told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court that he suspected his PC wife Catherine Louise Taylor, 31, was involved with someone else.

But he told the jury she "made him guess" who it was.

It was only then he discovered that she had started a relationship with Andrew Gibbons, her police sergeant.

Smith was arrested on March 31, 2014 on suspicion of harassing Ms Taylor and was released in the early hours of the next morning.

Collected by his father, the court heard they drove to Tesco to pick up a sandwich before going home to Tredegar.

Owen Williams, prosecuting, alleged that Smith, around half an hour of being released, had then initiated a process to remotely wipe his iPad and iPhone held in police custody using the Wifi at his parents' home where he was living and using his unique Apple ID credentials.

Smith denied the allegation, saying when he had arrived home he went to his parents' room to see his mother, who was in bed, before going to his own room.

He claimed he had refused to hand over the codes to the iPhone claiming he was trying to "protect" his wife's honour because it contained a video of them having consensual sex.

The iPhone was successfully wiped but Ms Taylor had already told the jury the police knew about the video because it had been on her phone, which she had handed over.

"She had led you on. Been particularly cruel to you. Committed adultery. Made you guess who she was having an affair with. She had gone to family court to get a civil injunction against you and you refused to give the iPhone code to protect the honour of your wife?" said Mr Williams.

Smith replied: "Yes. I was just trying to protect her. I thought we had a chance. If there was an inkling I could see my daughter every day of the week I would have done that."

And he gave the wrong code for the iPad claiming he had not known his sister, Katy Smith, must have changed it the previous day.

Smith alleged police incompetence had rendered the devices useless and told the jury he had "grave concerns" claiming they had told him: "We've f****d up. We've blocked the iPad."

But experts managed to unlock the disabled iPad first ensuring there was no Wifi connection, which prevented the receipt of a remote initiate wipe message.

Smith denied sending the wipe initiation messages and also buying a pay-as-you-go mobile phone to send confession messages to his new iPhone.

And he denied waiting so long to tell his defence team to ensure CCTV of him allegedly buying the phone voucher top-up to be overwritten.

"I wasn't going to say anything at all. I didn't want to get someone close to me into trouble," he said.

He further denied changing the name of the home Wifi firstly to WHOREIN4 - because they lived at number 4 - and then to WATCHINGU.

Smith, of Cwrt Pen-y-Twyn, Dukestown, Tredegar, denies two counts of perverting the course of justice.

Proceeding