Daily Mail 6th October 2008
A gangster wanted for murder paid a detective for secret information in cocaine, cash and call-girls, a court heard today.
Detective Constable John Jones was accused of taking £2,000 a week from career criminal Allan Foster, who cold-bloodedly executed a drug dealing associate.
The officer repeatedly accessed the Northumbria Police intelligence computer to find out what fellow officers knew about Foster, then passed it on, the jury heard.
Toby Hedworth QC, prosecuting, said on one occasion in April 2006 Jones and Foster travelled from the North East to London's West End, where they visited nightclubs, hired call-girls and snorted cocaine.
They took calls from the Prada shop in Chelsea as they travelled down to London and visited the shop, then were picked up by a limousine driver who took them to bars and clubs, including Stringfellows and the Knightsbridge private members' club The Wellington.
Then the gangster took the married police officer to a mews house in Kensington which Foster was renting, and call-girls were brought, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Mr Hedworth said: 'These sex workers will give evidence before you I anticipate, including the fact both men were snorting cocaine to the extent that DC Jones was unable to take advantage of the favours bought for him.'
He said: 'You may think Allan Foster had a taste for the high life, but Detective Constable Jones liked the flavour as well.
'What, you may ask yourself, was this officer doing to be rewarded in such a way by a man who he will have known to be an active professional, criminal.'
The court heard Jones developed a contact with Foster in 2003 through Bruce McCall, a friend of the officer who owned a gym where all three men worked out.
Foster was facing a lengthy prison sentence for importing cannabis and wanted to gain credit from the judge by passing on information.
As an official informant he was given a shorter sentence, after he tipped off police about a cache of guns which they found in a car parked in Plaistow, east London.
Jones passed on the contact to colleagues working for the National Crime Squad, who tried to develop him further as an informant.
That should have been the end of formal dealings between Jones and Foster, the court heard, but the policeman continued to associate with him and pass on information.
After the murder of South Tyneside drug dealer David "Noddy" Rice in 2006, Northumbria Police uncovered the link between their officer and the gangster, the court heard.
Mr Hedworth said: 'He was, and still is, believed to have cold-bloodedly murdered one of his criminal associates, a man known as David "Noddy" Rice.'
The jury heard Foster was able to stay "one step ahead" of the authorities and spirited himself out from the country. Foster was based in Sunderland and is now believed to be in Spain.
The court heard an associate of Foster would give evidence to say that Jones took a bundle of £2,000 cash every week from the criminal when they met at the gym.
The 48-year-old detective denies three counts of public misconduct.
Body builder McCall, 42, denies one count of aiding and abetting public misconduct, and counts relating to the importation, supply and possession of illegal steroids.
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