Killer's girlfriend got police job to discover name of witness who testified against him
Leon De St Aubin was found guilty of murder
Two corrupt police workers accessed the Met's computer to identify a vital witness who gave evidence anonymously in a notorious murder trial, a court heard .
The witness helped identify the gunmen who were later convicted of the execution of Darcy Austin Bruce outside the gates of Wandsworth Prison, the Old Bailey heard.
Detention officer Lydia Lauro, 33, the girlfriend of Leon De St Aubin who was convicted of the shooting, used the ID of colleague Hayden Cheremeh, 35, who became her lover, to log on to Met Police databases throughout 2012 to get hold of the sensitive information, the Old Bailey heard.
Working alongside them was trader Diana Lank, 60, the mother of Rupert Ross, 34, who was jailed alongside De St Aubin, 38 in November 2011 for murder.
Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told the jury: "This case concerns a persistent, determined and ultimately successful attempt by these three defendants to gain access to and penetrate the digital criminal intelligence system of the Metropolitan Police Service for their own purposes.
"In summary, their purpose was this - they were seeking to get details in order to identify a witness."
Mr Austin Bruce was shot five times at close range in May 2009 outside the prison's visitor centre by a man wearing a motorbike helmet, who then sped off in a car with two others.
Discussing evidence in the trial, Mr Heywood said: "There were many strands to the evidence relied upon in the trial.
"One of them, but by no means the only one, was the evidence of a witness, a young woman who said she had seen Rupert Ross dressed in a particular way travelling in a vehicle over the Wandsworth bridge shortly before 2 o'clock that afternoon of the killing with two others, one said to be Mr De St Aubin."
It was this witness which the three wanted to identify, he explained.
CENTRAL NEWS
He added: "Lydia Lauro, the second defendant, had had a relationship with Leon St De Aubin since around about 2005. She wrote to him, continued to visit him."
Lauro started a job as a detention officer in January 2012 in Hammersmith, west London, where she struck up a friendship with Cheremeh, who also worked there.
Later in 2012, Lauro and Cheremeh developed a "physical relationship", the court heard.
Mr Heywood said: "And that is evident from their behaviour and also from their communication."
Lank, of Fulham, south west London, Lauro, of, Kensington, west London, and Cheremeh, of, Clapham, south London deny committing misconduct in public office.
The trial continues.
Mirror uk
Comments