FOURTEEN years ago police sergeant Jill Evans' life came crashing down when she learnt that her partner, and father of her unborn child, Dean Jenkins, had been arrested for his part in an armed robbery.

More than a decade later and the former Haverfordwest sergeant has written a book, Two Cops and a Robber, detailing the lead-up to that fateful revelation and the aftermath that saw her being forced to resign from the job she loved.

Jill (now Owens) had met Dean Jenkins on an online dating site and in the nine months they had been together everything had been wonderful; they had planned to start a family together and Jill was pregnant with his son.

He presented himself as a respectable businessman and she had met his family, his business partner and visited his place of work.

"I had come out of two failed relationships, I was extra cautious," she said. "There was nothing that made me think 'something is not right here.'"

However, something certainly was not right. On November 1, 2006, after not hearing from Dean for more than 24 hours, Jill received a message to go to a phone box and ring his sister.

She did this and learnt that her partner was one of a gang of four men involved in an armed robbery in Kent on Hallowe'en. One of the robbers had been shot dead by police and Dean, along with the others had been arrested.

The very next morning Jill rang her Chief Superintendent and broke the news. She was investigated by Kent Police, who were investigating the robbery.

"Kent had to investigate me. I understood that completely," she said. "I cooperated with all of that and they said that I knew nothing about it."

However, suspension from the force and an investigation by Dyfed-Powys Police followed. A private hearing found Sergeant Evans guilty of professional misconduct.

This was later said to be "a travesty of justice; probably the worst I witnessed in my ten years" her police federation representative , Peter Dickenson.

A spokeswoman for Dyfed-Powys Police said at the time that Sergeant Evans was "required to resign" after the misconduct hearing.

She added: "The hearing concerned allegations concerning the officer's honesty and integrity and general conduct, and followed an investigation by the force's professional standards department.

"The matter was adjudicated upon by a wholly-independent panel external to the force. Following the evidence being heard and deliberated, the panel found the officer guilty of breaches of the police code of conduct."

Jill said: "They said I should have known because of all my training as a police officer and that I had put the police force into disrepute, and they required me to resign." 

"I felt I never asked to be in this position. I didn't do anything to be put in this position. All I did was push the button on that dating site and it detonated a massive bomb.

"Dean made the choice and he served seven and a half years for it. I served a sentence as well, but it was worse for me as I was fighting it out there.

"I felt that everything had gone, the job was going, my partner who I had planned a life with was locked up for seven and a half years, I was pregnant, trying to deal with everyone who had an opinion.

"I look back and think 'how on earth did you get through?' I just kept the faith that something would change."

After she left the force Jill ended up working in retail and from that moved into property management. It was only when her life was getting back on track, 12-years after it all came crashing down, that the shock hit her.

"I had a bit of a breakdown, I never really dealt with what had happened. I had some counselling and was on the up from there. Somebody said to me 'you should write a book'".

That book, Two Cops and a Robber, was released last month.

"I knew that to write it, it had to be about my life, it had to be warts and all. It does expose my personal life, all the gossip, I wanted it all out there so people could make their own minds up," she said.

"I did find that writing parts of it I was crying but I was strong enough to do it. It was very therapeutic doing it"

Jill said the response so far has been very positive.

"It has been really well received. I get so many messages now, messages from people who say they couldn't put it down. After 12 years now I feel I'm a good place.

"As unpleasant and awful as it was it was part of my life, you just have to draw the positives from it."

Two Cops and a Robber, by Jill Owens, is available from Amazon or Fortis Publishing.