Bent Coppers

The inside story of a secret unit that has worked under cover to expose corruption in the Metropolitan Police since the early 1990s - written by Graeme McLagan, contributor to THE REAL LINE OF DUTY. 'If you want a book that is genuinely 'unputdownable' read BENT COPPERS' Johnny Vaughan, THE SUN 'A very engaging read - the outrageous nature of bent cops' behaviour guarantees that' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Shocked by the extent of corruption within its ranks, Scotland Yard set up a new anti-corruption unit in the early 1990s. Its members had to operate in conditions of unprecedented secrecy and they became known as the 'Ghost Squad'. Bent Coppers really did believe they were untouchable: they stole cash and property, fitted-up innocent people and sold secret information to cripple court cases. Many of the bent coppers are now in jail or awaiting trial but the battle against corruption is not over. Only now can the story of the 'Ghost Squad' be revealed. Award-winning BBC home affairs correspondent Graeme McLagan had followed the investigation since the beginning. He has interviewed undercover officers and many of the bent coppers they have exposed. this is the inside story of the 'Ghost Squad' and how it broke into the secret world of police corruption.

True stories of police corruption, bent coppers and the secret units who hunt them.

An unprecedented investigation into the shocking realities of gun crime on Britain's streets, "Guns and Gangs" lifts the lid on a hugely important modern-day problem - an expensive problem both in terms of money and young lives. After terrorism, the single greatest worry for law enforcement agencies is gun crime, and in particular 'black on black' shootings. McLagan has had exclusive access to police files and case histories. Alongside his findings from these records are interviews with police officers, victims and their families, witnesses, lawyers and perpetrators of gun crime. The result is a unique, fascinating and horrifying expose of the disturbing truth behind this plague on our streets.

Tracing back to the earliest years of the police force in Britain, this book shows how opportunities for corruption have always existed, whether the temptation be money, the fabrication of evidence or the maltreatment of suspects. Controversial cases in recent years, such as the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and Broadwater Farm, have tarnished the force's reputation and resulted in the reluctance of juries to convict on police evidence alone. This survey of corruption, in particular within the Metropolitan Police, provides an assessment of the opportunities open to officers, and discusses the role played by some lawyers, magistrates and judges. James Morton, who for 25 years was a solicitor involved primarily in defence work, was a co-author of Nipper , the story of the man who brought the Krays to justice, and also wrote Gangland , a study of London's underworld.

Kathy Pettingill is a name that’s both respected and feared, not only by Australia’s criminal underworld, but by many in the Victorian police force. As the matriarch at the head of the most notorious and violent family of habitual offenders in Australian criminal history, her life has revolved around murder, drugs, prison, prostitution and bent coppers – and the intrigue and horror that surround such crimes. Her eldest son, Dennis Allen, was a mass murderer and a $70,000-a-week drug dealer who dismembered a Hell’s Angel with a chainsaw. Two younger sons were acquitted of the Walsh Street murders, the cold-blooded assassination of two police officers that changed the face of crime in Melbourne forever. One of the two, Victor, was gunned down himself in the street 14 years later, becoming the third son Kathy has buried. In this revised and updated authorised edition of Adrian Tame’s bestselling The Matriarch, Kathy Pettingill reveals the chilling truth behind many of the myths and legends that surround her family, including her experiences in the blood-spattered charnel house at the centre of Dennis Allen’s empire of drugs and violence. But this is no plea for pity. Forthright and deeply disturbing, like its subject, The Matriarch pulls no punches. Updated and revised for a new generation, this true crime classic is as terrifying and powerful as when it was first published.

This is an omnibus edition of two books about how the police force works. In the first, Morton unravels the tangled history of key players, including Bertie Smalls, the original supergrass, and his successor, "King Squealer" Maurice O'Mahony. The second is a study of police corruption in the UK.

With Scotland Yard in the dock, now more than ever the public needs to know why the police cannot be trusted to investigate their own corruption. Untouchables, a five year investigation which the Yard tried to stop, provides the essential context to the phone hacking and other scandals currently engulfing Britain's most powerful police force. Republished after seven years, it was the first book to question the cosy relationship between the Yard and sections of the media, to explain why cops are incapable of investigating themselves and to expose the lack of independence in the new police watchdog. From the 1983 Brinks Matt robbery, through the murders of Daniel Morgan, David Norris, Stephen Lawrence, Jill Dando and Damilola Taylor to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, Untouchables reveals the cover ups, double standards and miscarriages of justice during the Yard's phoney war on corruption. Sunday Times journalist Michael Gillard and TV producer Laurie Flynn expose how the discredited use of supergrasses in the war on corruption has re-emerged in the new wars on terror and crime, with the same disastrous effects: prosecution misconduct, collapsed trials, huge bills for the taxpayer, victims left without justice and the guilty walking free.