Undercover police officer suing the force after he became addicted to heroin
07-05-2014, 04:23 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ation.html
Quote:Quote:
An undercover policeman who slipped into heroin addiction and was jailed for giving police-issue weapons to his dealer is now suing his former force.
Robert Carroll, 41, has launched a civil case against Greater Manchester Police (GMP), whom he said encouraged him to inhale heroin smoke, making him 'basically high'.
The training exercise was meant to familiarise him with the drug, so he could carry out his role as an undercover purchaser.
His work with the force led to convictions for more than 100 dangerous dealers - but he also slipped into addiction himself and lost sight of his police work.
Carroll says he feels 'let down' by the police force, and felt unable to ask for help because he was 'surrounded by bravado' at work.
He announced his legal case after being released on licence four months into his 14-month sentence for misconduct in public office.
Earlier this year Carroll was put in prison after a court heard how his police work and undercover identities became so blurred that we sneaked out of work to meet his dealer in a police car, and gave him weapons in exchange for drugs.
The alleged training exercise at which Carroll says he was told to inhale heroin is said to have happened at GMP's Sedgley Park training complex in Prestwich in 2008, some two years after Carroll first started working as an undercover drugs purchaser.
He said: 'I felt ill when I walked out of there. They encouraged us to smell the smoke. That was pretty much the start of my downfall. Ultimately, I had a breakdown.
'I’m angry, angry at GMP. Basically they let me down. When I joined they said it was a big family.
'Well, they walked away from a member of that family when he got into big trouble. What sort of family is that?
'I had a mental breakdown and instead of helping me they went after me. My career has been cut short. Some may argue it was my fault and say: "Why didn’t you get help?"
'When you are in a position like that and in that kind of job you are surrounded by bravado and everybody else seems to be coping. It’s so hard to seek help when you are not sure what you need help for.'
He says he regrets pleading guilty at court, and claims he only did so to protect his wife, also an officer with GMP.
The married father-of-four, originally from Ashton-under-Lyne but now living in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, said he felt more comfortable as Lee Taylor - his ‘smackhead’ alter ego - than his real self.
At this point he was smoking heroin every day, whereas before his police career, he claims, he barely drank and never took illegal drugs until he joined the police.
He said: 'I was hallucinating. I got to the point where I was more comfortable being my alter ego Lee Taylor than I was being me.
'It was when I was Rob Carroll that I was acting the father, the family man and husband. That’s how bad I got. When you are a smackhead you are so ashamed, it’s the worst thing you can possibly be.
'Before I joined the police I had never taken any drugs. I barely drank.'
His fall from grace was described as a ‘personal tragedy’ by GMP Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy.
Carroll, now clean, said he had paid for a psychiatrist and a hypnotherapist to oust the Lee Taylor persona from his mind and return himself to the real him.
He claims that his problems worsened after his handlers became ‘more reckless’ and asked him to take more risks.
'It started becoming a figures game,' he said, claiming senior officers were more interested in keeping crime figures low than protecting officers’ safety.
In the two years before the training exercise, Carroll said he had frequently breathed in heroin smoke while working undercover.
He says dealers ordered him to put wraps of heroin he had purchased in his mouth as he left drugs dens in case police officers moved in and he would have to swallow the packages.
After being jailed, Carroll said he had to go undercover all over again to save himself from violence from police-hating inmates.
He was sent to HMP Wayland in Lincolnshire - the closest prison with no inmates whom he had helped jail.
Once inside he pretended to have been jailed for attacking a policeman, rather than admit he used to be an officer himself.
He said: 'It was as far as I could get from actually being a police officer. I said I’d been moved from Strangeways because of fighting.
'Part of that was so they would think I was a hard case and they’d leave me alone. I served four months inside but mentally it felt like double that. The only time I could relax was when I was locked up in my cell.
'The rest of the time I was worrying about my story. People in prison want to know about you.'
A police spokesman said: 'GMP is aware of legal proceedings brought against the force by former police officer Robert Carroll.
'As these proceedings are ongoing it would not be appropriate to comment further.'
