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Former Met police detectives cleared as retrial collapses

PUBLISHED October 19, 2011
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Two former Met officers cleared of 2000 conviction for robbing drug dealers and recycling narcotics through dealer One of the most significant police anti-corruption cases in modern times collapsed on Wednesday, after two former detectives, who had both served lengthy jail sentences, were cleared at a retrial. Robert Clark and Christopher Drury were drummed out of the force in disgrace after being convicted in 2000 of robbing drug dealers and recycling the narcotics. Their convictions were among the highest profile and most significant obtained by Scotland Yard in its long-running battle against corruption. They walked free after a supergrass witness recanted her evidence, leaving Scotland Yard facing a potential bill for the former officers' back wages and compensation running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Clark and Drury's original convictions were quashed and a retrial ordered in 2010 by the appeal court, after it emerged the Crown Prosecution Service had failed to disclose material to defence lawyers at the original trial. On Wednesday, the second attempt to prosecute Clark and Drury collapsed after the main witness against them, Evelyn Fleckney, said she had no recollection of any criminality involving the two former detectives. She had testified against them at the original trial, and was a former lover of Clark. The pair had allegedly signed into hotels using the name "Bart Simpson". Both Clark and Drury denied conspiracy to supply class-B drugs and perverting the course of justice. The two men were among five officers convicted in 2000 of corruption who had served at the south-east regional crime squad at Dulwich, south London, which was meant to tackle major drug traffickers. Corrupt officers based at the now disbanded unit were known as the "groovy gang". Clark, the alleged ringleader of the group, served 10 years of his 12-year sentence. Drury received 11 years and served eight. The sentences were some of the longest ever handed down to allegedly corrupt police officers. The investigation against them was codenamed Operation Russia and helped launch the career of John Yates, who in July this year resigned as an assistant commissioner over the phone-hacking scandal. The first trial heard that Fleckney, a drug dealer known as "the chairman of the board", passed Clark information about drug shipments. Part of any shipment seized by the squad was stolen by Clark and recycled by Fleckney through her network of dealers, the court was told, with profits allegedly shared among corrupt officers. Fleckney turned supergrass after she was convicted in March 1998 of conspiracy to supply ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis and jailed for 15 years. A statement from the men's solicitors said: "Mr Clark and Mr Drury have had their careers ruined by these allegations. They will now be looking for appropriate compensation and damages. "Above all, they call for a thorough inquiry into how the prosecution has been permitted to rely on such discredited and tainted evidence in their own and other trials." The former detectives are now working as bus drivers in the north of England, their solicitor said. The case collapsed during pre-trial argument on Tuesday. Fleckney claimed her evidence followed pressure put upon her by detectives from the anti-corruption "ghost squad", called CIB3. Fleckney told the court that anti-corruption officers had threatened her with a long prison sentence unless she co-operated. "Sometimes they would be nice and sometimes horrible. They'd shout. I felt under threat. They controlled my life." In a statement, the CPS said: "Evelyn Fleckney ? demonstrated a clear hostility to the prosecution: making new allegations of misconduct against the investigators who debriefed her; claiming to have no recollection at all of any criminality by the defendants that she previously described; and expressed a determination not to give evidence at any retrial, even to the extent of moving abroad to avoid doing so. "We consider that without Evelyn Fleckney's willing evidence in this case there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction of either defendant on any of the charges they face and accordingly have offered no evidence against them." In a statement, the Met said: "The MPS accepts this finding but is disappointed by the outcome and will continue to take allegations of corruption extremely seriously and deal robustly with any officers who do not uphold the high standards expected." Sentencing Clark and Drury in 2000, Mr Justice Blofeld told them: "I do not consider the primary motive for either of you was personal gain, but power. Both of you by your behaviour displayed a considerable degree of arrogance. "Both of you took the view that the law was for lesser mortals than you. You did whatever you wanted whether it was inside or outside the law." Metropolitan police London Police Drugs trade Crime Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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