The jury has gone out in the trial of a sacked Merseyside police officer accused of being the “inside man” in a plot to burgle cannabis farms.
Ex-PC Barry Parkinson, 45, is accused of selling police information to underworld associates to keep them “one step ahead”.
The dad-of-two is also accused of passing on the addresses of suspected cannabis farms to criminals as part of a conspiracy to break in and steal the drugs.
He denies misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to supply cannabis between January 1 and June 27, 2014.
Parkinson, of Beechburn Crescent, Page Moss, was a Field Intelligence Development Officer in Liverpool South Basic Command Unit from 2006 to 2014.
He denies knowledge of any conspiracy but has admitted two counts of misconduct in a public office, in relation to information he accessed for his friend Robert Gerrard Sloan.
Robert Gerrard Sloan leaves Liverpool Crown Court
Parkinson told the jury his links to Sloan, 44 – who prosecutors say “dealt cocaine by the kilo” – were actually due to their shared love of watching Liverpool FC.
The former policeman said regular payments made to his bank account were down to him selling football tickets.
He said he falsified an arrest report for Sloan – suggesting he had been suspected of money laundering – to get people his friend owed money to “off his back”.
Nicholas Johnson, QC, prosecuting, said Parkinson was plagued with debt and borrowed thousands of pounds from his family.
He said Parkinson accessed police computers to find suspected cannabis farms, then passed the details to Sloan, who called another co-defendant, David Gould.
The court heard police observed Sloan and Gould meeting up, before Gould rang a man named Shaun Blackburn.
Blackburn was later seen at a Belle Vale address, believed by police to house a cannabis crop.
Taxi driver Sloan said he had no dealings with cannabis and was not a “major” cocaine dealer as the prosecution suggested.
The former bouncer and bailiff admitted using and supplying steroids and growth hormone, but denied having debts with people outside the city or owing money to “big time drug people”.
Sloan told the jury he asked Parkinson for help because he just wanted to “have an easy life and to get out of doing favours and jobs and the line of work I was in”.
He said he had been tracking a traveller called Bernie Campbell – one of the people who Parkinson looked up on the police database – because he owed money to his late friend, who died from cancer.
The ex-doorman said he promised his dying pal that he would get the money for his family back from Mr Campbell and had asked Gould to help.
Sloan, of Steeple View, Kirkby; Gould, 52, of Grange Avenue, West Derby; and Blackburn, 30, of Kenbury Road, Kirkby; all deny conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to supply cannabis.
Sloan has admitted two counts of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office.
David Nuttall, 44, of Bonnington Close, St Helens, denies conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.
He has already pleaded guilty to production of cannabis and abstracting electricity.
(Proceeding)
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/