Ex-officer's shocking claims over police cases into gangster and killers

Tribunal told of undercover cops watching on as boy, 13, walked into paedophile's flat, Cregan's blaze of glory' warning and secret incineration of Shipman victims' body parts

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

SENIOR police officers sanctioned a 'controversial' undercover operation into gangster Dominic Noonan where officers are said to have watched and allowed a boy of 13 to walk into a flat where the suspected paedophile was staying, an employment tribunal judgment has revealed.

Undercover cops watched - but were not allowed to intervene the boy walked into the clutches of Noonan, a gangster long suspected by police of being a predatory sex offender. The curtains were drawn and police suspected the teen was sexually abused by Noonan, the ruling says.

But senior cops at Greater Manchester Police were prepared to accept a higher degree of risk than the potential for successful evidence gathering perhaps warranted. That was the conclusion of an employment tribunal judge as he dismissed a series of bombshell allegations by a former detective.

Among them is a claim that GMP tried to 'cover up' the operation to spare its reputation. The allegation, and others, have been rejected by an employment tribunal brought by retired Pete Jackson, in which he claimed he was sidelined and passed over for promotion after turning whistleblower.

But, in dismissing his claims, the 367-page judgment has shed new light on a series of controversial police operations over the years, including the secret storage and disposal of the body parts of Harold Shipman's victims which, it can now be revealed, landed a senior officer in hot water for telling a colleague 'all's well that ends in dust.

And police intelligence has also been revealed which suggested police killer Dale Cregan was prepared to 'go down in a blaze of glory' while he was on the run.