Stephen Hardy

Stephen Hardy was a detective constable with Greater Manchester Police — and a child abuser who manipulated and controlled a girl through years of sexual offending.

The child was just 12 when the abuse started, with offences spanning December 2012 to June 2020. Hardy, from Mottram in Tameside, denied any sexual contact, but a jury convicted him of all 20 offences following a four-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Hardy, who worked in GMP’s Stockport division, was convicted of offences including repeated rape, sexual assault, assault by penetration, causing a child to engage in sexual activity and causing a child to watch sexual activity. These crimes were committed off duty by a police officer whose job was to uphold the law and protect the public.

Sentencing Hardy, then 46, on 13 September 2023, Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said he had treated his victim as a “puppet or sex object” and shown no remorse. The judge said his experience as a long-serving officer meant he would have understood the lasting trauma of sexual abuse — yet gave it no thought. Hardy received a reported 26-year sentence and was classified as dangerous.