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tests throughout my football career and never had a problem. I certainly wouldn’t have taken drugs as a frontline police officer. I’ve never taken cocaine or any other drug so I thought they must have made a mistake with the samples.

“Years earlier, I had rashly bought some drugs over the internet to deal with stress. They might have been from America. Years later, I found them and took some.

“It seems I had enough in my system to have been taking cocaine for three to four months.”

Prior to that Julian had an “exemplary” police career over 18 years and had received a chief constable’s commendation. Speaking about the challenges and stresses of being a police officer, he said: “Police budgets have been stripped and thousands of officers are leaving because of stress, staffing levels and the lack of resources.

“That is making it harder and harder for the officers left.

“I was very proud to have been a cop. I just hope in the tragic deaths of Nicola and Fiona that the public recognise what dangers the police face every day.”

patrick.hill@trinitymirror.com Down The Line: The Julian Broddle story is available in Kindle format and paperback on Amazon.