Recordings of a police officer ‘selling information’ to a drug dealer about an associate suspected of being a “grass” were played to a jury today.
Former Merseyside PC Barry Parkinson, 45, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to supply cannabis.
Parkinson, of Beechburn Crescent, Page Moss, is said to have kept his underworld associates “one step ahead” by providing a “checking service” – trawling through police databases to see whether Merseyside Police were targeting their drug dealing.
He is also alleged to have passed on the addresses of suspected cannabis farms to criminals as part of a conspiracy to break in and steal the drugs.
Audio tapes from a covert listening device, planted in the car of alleged cocaine dealer Robert Gerrard Sloan, captured a meeting with Parkinson in the car-park of Asda in Huyton.
Parkinson was recorded telling Sloan about an associate called Bernie “the Bolt” Campbell who owed Sloan money.
The jury had earlier been told Sloan was concerned that Campbell was avoiding him.
Parkinson was heard to inform Sloan that he had “checked the system” and Campbell was not on bail or ordered to sign on at a police station, which contradicted what Campbell had told Sloan.
Sloan was heard to say: “You don’t think he’s a midnight do you?”
The court heard this was short for “midnight mass”, rhyming slang for “grass”
Parkinson reassured him “there was nothing on the system about that.. I just think he’s having you on mate.”
Sloan, allegedly involved in dealing “cocaine by the kilo”, then told Parkinson, “I owe you two (thousand) I will sort you out.”
Parkinson replied: “If you don’t there will be no more.”
After Parkinson left his friend’s vehicle, Sloan was heard to call an associate, later identified as Lee Jones.
Speaking to Jones, he said: “He (Campbell) is not on bail lad, it stinks to high heaven. He’s got no bail conditions.”
He was heard to refer to Campbell’s previous record for firearms and explosives offences, and said: “I’m telling you things you have never told me, and he (Campbell) has never told me.”
The court heard this information had been pulled from police records.
At the time of the alleged offences, between January and June last year, Parkinson was part of a team dealing with sensitive police intelligence on a electronic system known as Niche.
Liverpool Crown and Magistrates’ Court
The jury heard he sold information to Sloan about addresses logged on the Niche system as sites of suspected cannabis farms.
Prosecution lawyers say Sloan then passed the addresses to another alleged drug dealer, David Gould, who in turn told an associate called Shaun Blackburn to burgle the premises and steal the drugs.
Another co-defendant, David Nuttall, is alleged to have asked Parkinson to check whether police were on to an address where he was growing a £20,000 cannabis farm.
Sloan, 44, 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, however, pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office.
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.
The prosecution case is expected to last until Tuesday, and the trial will run into next month.
(Proceeding)
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/