A COLLEAGUE of a Lottery worker who allegedly helped a violent rapist bag a £2.5million jackpot has revealed: “I just want the truth to come out.”

Camelot analyst Andrew Sales, 60, was devastated when close pal Giles Knibbs took his own life.

After the suicide of Knibbs, who worked in the lotto operator’s fraud unit, it was claimed he was the “inside man” in Edward Putman’s suspect jackpot win.

But detectives probing the alleged scam have been met with a wall of silence.

Now Mr Sales, 60, has spoken out for the first time to plead for the riddle to be cleared up.

He said: “It’s a very sordid affair. I went to the police voluntarily with everything I knew because I wanted them to take it further.

“Giles was a friend and he died in tragic circumstances. I would love the full story to come out.”

Fraud expert Mr Knibbs, 38, is said to have given vital information to convicted sex attacker Putman for his 2009 win.

After he was secretly recorded implicating himself in the alleged scam, Mr Knibbs took his own life amid claims he was blackmailing Putman for £900,000.

Nobody has ever been prosecuted despite a Gambling Commission report finding it was “more likely than not” Putman’s winning ticket was fake.

MATCHED

Mr Sales, of Shenley, Herts, added: “If there was any way of proving what they did I would be very, very keen to do so.”

Putman, who bought an £800,000 house in Kings Langley, Herts, with his winnings, has kept a low profile since the Gambling Commission report.

But Lotto chiefs faced claims of a cover-up after the report had 195 pages altered and 79 removed.

It has been claimed Mr Knibbs left 14 deathbed letters detailing the alleged scam.

Earlier this year the Sunday Mirror told how Putman, who was jailed in 1991 for the violent rape of a 17-year-old, waved a phoney winning ticket at neighbours in a “dry run” five months before he bagged the jackpot.

The numbers on the “winning” ticket he submitted to Camelot had been drawn on March 11, 2009 and matched an unclaimed one bought in Worcestershire.

The testimony of Putman’s ex-pal Stephen Warner sparked a fresh probe by cops who were due to question four new witnesses.

Putman is said to have met Mr Knibbs in 2003 when he did building work for the IT expert’s parents.

The pair harboured dreams of property development and began working on deals, with Mr Knibbs bankrolling the purchase of a house.

But in October 2015 he took his own life while on police bail, arousing suspicion.

dan.warburton @trinitymirror.com