DETECTIVE 'HAD AFFAIR WITH DRUG DEALER'

A WOMAN drugs dealer told an Old Bailey jury yesterday how she became the
lover of a corrupt police officer and helped him to sell cocaine and
cannabis seized during police raids.

Evelyn Fleckney said that she became an informant for Detective Constable
Robert Clark, but he used the information that she gave him to "recycle"
drugs that were seized as a result. Mrs Fleckney, 43, said she fell in love
with the officer and they spent nights together at London hotels and used
the name "Bart Simpson" in the registers.

The couple also went on holiday in Gran Canaria for her birthday and Dc
Clark gave Mrs Fleckney jewellery, the court heard.

She gave him furniture and a carved stone from South Africa that cost
pounds 200. When Mrs Fleckney found she had been made pregnant by the
detective she had an abortion.

Dc Clark, 37 and a former member of a regional crime squad, has denied
conspiring to supply drugs and perverting the course of justice.

Sergeant Christopher Drury, 37, who was in the squad, has also pleaded not
guilty to the charges. Detective Constable Peter Lawson, 53, and Roger
Pearce, a retired detective, have pleaded not guilty to perverting the
course of justice.

Dc Clark "abused his position" when he was the handler of Mrs Fleckney,
Orlando Pownall, for the prosecution, has alleged.

Mrs Fleckney, who is now serving 15 years in jail for drug offences, told
the court that she had been passed to Dc Clark as an informant by another
officer.

She told the jury today that after she had been arrested in 1990 for
another matter, she became a police informer.

As a result she met Dc Clark. After she received a suspended sentence for
the 1990 offence, they had stayed together in a Chelsea hotel.

"Clark slept with me that night. He slept with me again. I provided him
with information," Mrs Fleckney said.

After one operation she sold some bars of cannabis for pounds 400 to pounds
500 each and she gave part of the cash to Dc Clark, who gave some of the
money to other officers.

When police seized some more cannabis she sold 15 kilos at pounds 1,700
each and also sold 12 ounces of cocaine which she said was passed to her by
Dc Clark.

She was also given forged driving documents which the police had taken with
the drugs.

On Dc Clark's birthday one year they spent the night together at the Lownes
Hotel paying in cash. They also stayed at the Conrad Hotel at Chelsea
Harbour in West London.

Mrs Fleckney told the jury that she was convicted for drug dealing last
year. After being sent to prison, she received another card from Dc Clark
with the message: "Lots of love from Bart."

She told the court that she had been interviewed by police officers after
her trial and pleaded guilty to a series of charges linked to Dc Clark.
Cross-examined by Alun Jones QC, for Dc Clark, Mrs Fleckney denied she was
lying and trying to get her sentence reduced.

Mrs Fleckney denied she had been an informant for rewards. She said that
she shared rewards with Dc Clark. What she had done she did for him so that
he could get promotion.

"I was in love with Bob Clark," she told the jury.

The case continues