A JUDGE told a Gwent police constable yesterday that he was a disgrace to the force after being convicted of lying in court.

Judge John Griffith Williams told PC Christopher Watkins (pictured): "You will have to bear the consequences of your disgrace and the knowledge that you have brought disgrace not only on the Gwent Constabulary, but the police force in general."

But Watkins, 40, from Dingle Road, Abergavenny, escaped jail despite lying in the magistrates' court trial of Ebbw Vale poultry worker Graham Jones, who had been charged with assault.

Watkins, convicted of perjury last month, was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years and told to pay £1,000 costs because of "exceptional circumstances".

Although he is set to appeal, Watkins now also faces disciplinary action.

Watkins was appearing at Cardiff crown court for sentence after a jury found him guilty of perjury earlier this month.

He and a fellow officer, PC Neil Martin, 40, from High Trees Road, Gilwern, were both cleared of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against 43-year-old Ebbw Vale poultry worker Graham Jones in a police van after he was arrested in Abergavenny town centre in February 2001.

But Watkins was convicted of deliberately lying before Abergavenny magistrates' court in October 2001 when Mr Jones stood trial for allegedly assaulting him and committing a public order offence in connection with the incident in Febuary.

Watkins maintained that only he and PC Martin were in the van at the time.

When it emerged at that trial that, then special constable, Jeremy Miles had been in the van as well, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case.

Watkins was suspended from duty on full pay during an investigation.

Stuart Stevens, mitigating for Watkins, told the court yesterday that Watkins' wife has recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Mr Stevens said that as a result of television and newspaper reports surrounding the case, Watkins, his wife and their son had been subjected to "taunting" by people who the policeman had previously dealt with. And, he said, people had pointed their two fingers like a gun from across the road.

At the trial, Watkins alleged that Mr Jones had raised his fingers in the shape of a gun, pointed it at the police van, pretended to shoot and blown away imaginary smoke.

Mr Stevens said this had all had a "traumatic effect" on Watkins and his family.

Mr Stevens said: "Realistically speaking, he knows his career is finished - it's only a matter of time.

"At his age he will have to pick up the threads and try and find another job which will not be easy. His pension will be frozen and it will not grow as it would have done."