Mysterious L-plates for the red Capri... how his first wife rumbled the philandering Andy Hayman

By Amanda PerThen for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 18:18 EDT, 16 July 2011

Heard it all before: Jayne Harman says her former husband Andy's indignant reaction to the MPs grilling was similar to when she quizzed him about suspected affairs

Like an echo from the past, there was something very familiar about former police chief Andy Hayman’s outraged indignation during his grilling by MPs last week.

At least that’s what his former wife Jayne thought as she watched him on TV. Particularly when one MP asked whether Mr Hayman had ever taken a bung. ‘Good God. Absolutely not,’ he erupted.

The last time Jayne Hayman heard him react in such a way was in the Eighties when she accused him – correctly, as it turned out – of having an affair with a 23-year-old hairdresser called Audrey.

Jayne confronted her husband after finding the name written on a piece of paper which had fallen out of the Bible she kept on her dressing table. Weeks later, she discovered a set of L-plates hidden in the boot of his cherished red Ford Capri.

Recalling the incident when she found the scrap of paper, Jayne said: ‘He behaved in exactly the same way [as he did when he appeared before MPs], issuing a stream of denials and being very indignant that I had accused him.

‘It was such a convincing performance that I believed him. He told me that Audrey was a police informant. It took me some months to find out that it was all lies.’

The couple’s marriage ended after four years but Jayne, now 47, has followed Hayman’s career from afar.

When they met he was a lowly constable in Essex, desperate to make the step up to sergeant. In fact, he would go on to reach the higher echelons of Scotland Yard as an assistant commissioner.

Hayman came to public prominence after leading the investigation into the July 7 bombings in London, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station, and the disastrous original inquiry into phone-hacking by the News of the World.

Short-lived: Jayne, with Andy Hayman, says her former husband has not changed one iota and is still argumentative

For Jayne, his grilling last week by the Commons Home Affairs Committee probing the scandal brought back memories of the time she made him squirm with her own questions.

‘He hasn’t changed one iota – his mannerisms, his argumentative ways, his indignation when challenged, all the talk,’ she said.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Jayne reveals details of their short-lived marriage and delivers a telling insight into the makings of one of Britain’s most senior policemen.

Viewed from a distance of nearly 30 years, there is much in Hayman’s early career that would strike a chord with viewers of the BBC’s hit drama Life On Mars, which featured macho detective Gene Hunt. While DCI Hunt drove a gold Ford Cortina, Hayman loved getting behind the wheel of his thrusting three-litre Capri.

‘He used to cruise up and down the seafront at Leigh-on-Sea with the  window down and his arm on the ledge. It was very powerful and he loved it,’ laughed Jayne.

It was certainly more potent than his  previous vehicle – a mustard-coloured Mini Traveller with wood trim and a number plate containing the unfortunate letter combination POO.

'Like John Travolta': Jayne says her former husband was a 'charmer who had a dashing moustache'

When the couple first met in 1983 – at the Crooked Billet pub in Leigh-on-Sea where Jayne worked as a part-time barmaid – she was 18 and Hayman was a 24-year-old ‘charmer’ who sported a ‘dashing moustache’.

In his spare time, he also worked as DJ, taking his mobile disco to a holiday camp on Canvey Island.

Jayne said: ‘He was definitely a ladies’ man and liked to think of himself as a snappy dresser. But he was no John Travolta on the dancefloor. He just used to get up and give it a go.

‘But Andy’s passion was always the police force – he lived and breathed it. I always knew he would go far.

‘He used to love Saturday nights when all the rogues were out and he had to catch them. He liked not wearing a uniform because he could do more things without being noticed – such as chatting up women, probably.

‘When I saw him on TV last week, I felt proud of him. Despite us splitting up, I’m not bitter.’

Indignant: Former Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman was outraged when MPs grilled him

Hayman proposed six months after they met. ‘Andy was wonderful with my mother, who was dying of cancer. We organised the wedding in just three weeks. He said, “I know you want your mother to be there, so let’s bring the date forward”,’ she said.

They wed in March 1984 but their first year of marriage was difficult, with Hayman working long shifts and Jayne by now busy with her job at Midland Bank.

She said: ‘I suppose that’s why things went wrong. It wasn’t really Andy’s fault. He had an affair, but I was pushing him away. I was still grieving for my mother and also working hard at the bank. I feel such a fool now. I believed him over the Bible episode and let the matter rest.

‘He was indignant and said, “How dare you accuse me of having an affair,” so I didn’t question him  further.’

Hot wheels: Andy Hayman loved the power he got from cruising around Leigh-on-Sea in his Ford Capri

But a few weeks later Jayne became suspicious again when she discovered the L-plates.

‘He told me he was teaching the wife of one of his colleagues to drive because if her husband took her out, they would argue. I was annoyed – I said if she wrecks  the car, we will have to pay for it on our insurance.’

Hayman obviously took this point to heart because a few weeks later a letter arrived demanding an extra insurance payment of £14 to cover a named woman driver – the same name that Jayne had seen on the slip of paper.

‘I was furious and realised something was going on,’ she said. ‘I begged Andy to be honest and tell me who she was. He said she was a hairdresser and that he had met her while he was DJing on Canvey Island because she worked there part-time as a dancer.

‘He told me it was over and that she meant nothing to him, but things were never the same after that – I didn’t trust him any more. I was distraught. I was still grieving for my mother and had no one I felt I could confide in.’

The lowest point came when Hayman said he would not be spending Christmas Day with her. Jayne recalls: ‘We were supposed to be going out to dinner. How do you tell your friends you’re going to be on your own? It was the worst day of my life – I drank Pernod and lemonade and ate a whole tin of Quality Street. That’s all I had that day. I learnt later he had spent Christmas with her. It was the last straw.’

Even so, the couple’s relationship struggled on until February 1987 when Jayne moved her belongings out of the marital home.

When she returned to the property a few weeks later to retrieve the last of her goods, she came face-to-face with Hayman.

Jayne said: ‘He asked me what I was doing and I said I was moving out. He stood in the hallway, pleading with me not to go. My last memory that day is him standing on the pavement, watching me disappear in my car.’

Despite their separation, Hayman was jealous of anyone she went on to date. On one occasion, he used his detective skills to track down her new boyfriend. Jayne said: ‘He found out his name, phone number and where he lived. He even came and sat outside his house and would ring the landline. I told him he had to stop. I was entitled to lead my life how I wanted because we were separated.’ The couple finally divorced in January 1988.

‘All I got from the settlement was £7,200 and the Mini Traveller. He  got the house and the red Capri,’ Jayne added.

But for a fleeting glimpse of the her husband in Southend, she didn’t see him again.

During his interrogation by MPs last week, Mr Hayman was challenged about his private life, and reference was made to his involvement with two women, which led to a police investigation, followed by his resignation from Scotland Yard in 2007.

Referring to photographs of him with married civil servant Nikki Redmond, committee chairman Keith Vaz said: ‘There was some kind of deal done because of your personal life, that they [the News of the World] would not attack  you if you supported them in this investigation?’

Hayman replied: ‘These are terribly grubby suggestions. How could I ever have stopped a line of investigation? I couldn’t, I wouldn’t.’ Meanwhile Jayne watched it all with a wry smile. ‘I can’t say I was in the least bit surprised.’