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A Wollongong police prosecutor who altered court documents for a client of slain solicitor Katie Foreman started a sexually charged email exchange with her later the same day, which eventually led to the pair twice engaging in "heavy petting" sessions, a court has heard.
Senior Constable Sean Thackray admitted to exchanging dozens of sexually explicit emails and text messages with Ms Foreman in the months after the two were involved in the court matter at Port Kembla on February 14, 2011, but denies they ever had sex.
The court heard Snr Const Thackray contacted Ms Foreman using his NSW Police Force email the same day the pair had appeared in court, playfully suggesting she'd "taken advantage" of him liking her by having him amend a set of police facts for her client on the condition the client pleaded guilty.
Ms Foreman dismissed the notion in her reply email a few minutes later, but added "having said that, I will gladly take advantage of you in more work-unrelated circumstances. Any suggestions about how [I might do that]?"
When asked to explain the nature of the email, Snr Const Thackray said it was him trying to initiate a flirtatious exchange between the pair.
Snr Const Thackray said he and Ms Foreman continued to send each other sexually explicit emails for almost two weeks.
During one email exchange, Snr Const Thackray advised Ms Foreman he was married, prompting Ms Foreman to reply, "I'm good at keeping secrets".
On February 25, Snr Const Thackray emailed Ms Foreman telling her their email communication needed to stop as he believed he had breached the NSW Police Force's email policy with the graphic content of their exchanges.
However, the court heard the pair continued to communicate via text message, eventually becoming physically intimate on two occasions - once at Port Kembla Courthouse and again in an interview room at Wollongong Police Station during a lunch break.
Snr Const Thackray told jurors the pair kissed but never had sex.
"You might call it heavy petting ... we had our hands on each other," he said.
In August, while Snr Const Thackray was in Grafton for work, the pair exchanged a series of messages in which they discussed engaging in different sexual positions, reminisced about their earlier physical encounters and fantasised about future ones.
"[I'm] so horny sitting in a hotel room by myself, want you [here]," Snr Const Thackray wrote in one message. In another, he said: "I want to feel your thighs on my face, your long legs around my back."
The court heard Ms Foreman was also intimately involved with another police officer she met through her work as a solicitor.
Lake Illawarra Detective Sergeant Craig Fleuren told jurors he slept with Ms Foreman twice after they had met while on opposing sides of a court case - Det Sgt Fleuren as the officer in charge of the matter, and Ms Foreman representing one of the accused.
The prosecution of the matter was handled by representatives of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Det Sgt Fleuren said he and Ms Foreman slept together twice at Ms Foreman's house in November 2010 before he called it off.
Both Snr Const Thackray and Det Sgt Fleuren were investigated by the police standards command over their interactions with Ms Foreman following an anonymous complaint to Crime Stoppers.
Both men were cleared of any wrongdoing on three allegations - perverting the course of justice, misuse of prosecution powers and illicit drug use.
However, Snr Const Thackray was found to have misused the police email system.
The trial continues on Friday.