WANTED GANGSTER 'PAID DETECTIVE FOR INFORMATION'

A gangster wanted for murder paid a Northumbria detective for secret
information in cocaine, cash and call-girls, a court heard on Monday.

Detective Constable John Jones was accused of taking UKP2,000 a week
from career criminal Allan Foster, who cold-bloodedly executed a drug
dealing associate, Newcastle Crown Court heard. 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.

Then the gangster took the married police officer to a mews house in
Kensington which Foster was renting, and call-girls were brought. 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."

The prosecution said: "You may think Allan Foster had a taste for the
high life - submit the Crown, Detective Constable Jones liked the
flavour as well. What, you may ask yourself, was this Northumbria
Police officer doing to be rewarded in such a way by a man who he
will have known to be an active professional, criminal."

Foster was facing a lengthy prison sentence for importing cannabis
when he met Jones at a gym where they exercised 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 UKP2,000 cash every week from the criminal when they
met at a gym.

The 48-year-old detective denies three counts of public misconduct.