Killer’s girlfriend joined Met to seek out secret witness
Woman seduced colleague in order to gain access to police database in effort to track down informant
A GANGSTER’s girlfriend who infiltrated the Metropolitan Police in order to uncover the identity of a witness in the protection programme has been jailed for five years.
Lydia Lauro, 33, got a job as a civilian custody officer at Hammersmith Police Station just months after her lover, Leon De St Aubin, 38, was convicted of murdering a man in an alleged drugs feud. After seducing police colleague Hayden Cheremeh, 36, she persuaded him to access a database so she could discover the identity of a secret witness who had given evidence in the murder trial. Cheremeh, a police community support officer, who agreed to help her in return for sexual favours, was also jailed for five years.
The pair made more than 200 searches as they scoured the police database for information on the witness known as Sam Richmond, and even sent screen shots from the computer to her boyfriend’s lawyer.
De St Aubin was jailed for 30 years alongside former public schoolboy Rupert Ross, 34, in 2011 after being convicted of murdering 20year-old Austin Bruce outside Wandsworth Prison in May 2009. But he was still awaiting trial when Lauro applied for a job with the Met, and failed to disclose their relationship.
Once she started working for the force she approached Cheremeh, who was able to access police records, and offered him sexual favours in exchange for his help. Cheremeh admitted allowing Lauro to use his passwords, but claimed he did not know that the witness she was looking for had been granted anonymity.
During sentencing, Judge Anthony Morris QC said: “Both Lauro and Cheremeh knew they were required to maintain the highest standards of integrity when working for the Met and not to make unauthorised use of information contained on Met databases.” He said her failure to disclose details about the relationship represented a gross breach of duty, which was an aggravating factor in the case. Judge Morris described Ross and De St Aubin as the “driving force” behind Lauro and Cheremeh’s crimes. He said: “There was a danger not only of this witness’s identity being revealed but of the wrong woman being identified and the danger this posed to all such women.” He added: “There’s no evidence that anyone has been caused death or serious injury to date but it must have been very worrying to that woman believed to know she had been searched. “This has the capacity to damage public confidence in the police and to discourage witnesses who may only be prepared to give evidence under the condition of anonymity.” While Lauro and Cheremeh were convicted of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, Ross’s mother Diana Lank, 60, who had admitted persuading Lauro to help her find the witness, was cleared after insisting she had been investigating whether her son had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.