OFFICER 'TOOK DRUG MONEY'

A FORMER prostitute, heroin addict and police informant claimed yesterday
that she sold big quantities of cannabis supplied by a senior drug squad
detective.

The woman told Perth Magistrate's Court she split the proceeds 50:50 with
the policeman and paid him sums of up to $5000 a week on a "good" week.

She described how on one occasion near the WACA Ground in Perth the officer
filled the boot of her car with plastic bags of cannabis which had been
seized by police.

She then sold the cannabis to friends and acquaintances before dobbing them
in to her police contact and picking up money as an informant.

It was an adventurous life and more exciting than staying at home, she said.

Suppression orders prevent The West Australian naming the woman and the
senior police officer she alleged was involved. The incidents are alleged
to have happened between 1981 and 1983.

The woman was giving evidence at a preliminary hearing on Sgt Paul
Ferguson, who is facing four charges of knowingly giving false evidence as
a witness at an Anti- Corruption Commission inquiry in March 1998. The ACC
was investigating allegations that drug squad detectives were involved in
the theft, distribution, sale and supply of prohibited drugs from about 1980.

It is alleged that the woman had a three-year sexual relationship with the
officer whose name has been suppressed. She claimed that they first met
when that officer led a team of four detectives on a drug raid at her home
in 1981.

Her neighbour, then a teenager, was alleged to have had a six-month sexual
relationship with Sgt Ferguson.

The woman claimed the two detectives and the two women would smoke cannabis
together when they met.

In his answers to the ACC which the prosecution claims are false, Sgt
Ferguson denied taking prohibited drugs and denied seeing any other officer
take prohibited drugs.

The woman who claimed to have had a relationship with the officer whose
name is suppressed testified yesterday that she would often be picked up by
him after parking her car near the WACA Ground. They went to various hotels
and often booked a room.

Cross-examined by Mark Trowell QC, for Sgt Ferguson, the woman conceded she
had been a prostitute, had had problems with alcohol, amphetamines and LSD
and was addicted to heroin between 1983 and 1995.

She admitted telling ACC investigators she was a big dealer in cannabis in
the early 1980s thanks to supplies from the officer whose name has been
suppressed.

The day she filled her car boot with cannabis she considered that the drug
was high quality and grown professionally.

She admitted that sometimes she sold the cannabis to people whom the
officer was watching and that she informed on friends and acquaintances.

Mr Trowell: You sold it and he would arrest them?

Witness: Yes.

Mr Trowell: Often?

Witness: Yes, and I got paid for doing it.

She denied that when she was questioned by ACC investigators she made a
decision to "nail" Sgt Ferguson and the other officer. "I was backed into a
corner," she said.

Magistrate Alison Robins will give her decision today on whether Sgt
Ferguson will stand trial.