A FORMER police officer has admitted assaulting his wife and making threatening calls to members of her family.

Roger Nelson, 33, a former Consett-based constable in the Durham force, yesterday admitted three charges of assaulting his now estranged wife, Emma Jane Louise Nelson, causing her actual bodily harm.

The charges relate to December 1998, and May and September last year, when the couple lived in Burnopfield, County Durham.

Appearing at Durham Crown Court, Nelson also pleaded guilty to a single count under the Protection from Harassment Act of 1997, of putting another in fear of violence, in a series of telephone calls on February 23 this year, to brother-in-law Simon Stewart-Piercy, his wife, Margaret, and father-in-law David Piercy.

The calls were said to have left Mr Piercy fearing violence would be inflicted on him.

Sentence on Nelson was adjourned pending preparation of psychiatric and probation reports.

He was bailed to an address in Chingford, east London, to return to the court for sentence in the week of November 20.

Nelson tendered his resignation from the force shortly after his arrest last February.