Gangland author Dave Courtney’s celebrity status w
Gangland author Dave Courtney’s celebrity status was revealed at the Old Bailey today (thurs) as his longterm lover denied he was a grass.
His partner of ten years Jennifer Pinto, a rap artist, took the stand to tell of her hero’s contempt for the police.
She admitted Courtney, 41, had a criminal past and associated with crooks but denied claims he was a police informant.
The court also heard of his aborted attempt to run as Lord Mayor of London, countless newspaper profiles and a bestselling book.
The prosecution allege that Courtney, private investigator Jonathan Rees, 46, and corrupt Det Con Austin Warnes, 47, were all involved in a cynical plot to help a bitter hubby win custody of his little boy.
It is claimed Simon James, 34, and Rees arranged for cocaine to be planted in Kim James’s car
She was later arrested and could have faced jail and a longterm separation from her son.
The court has heard that the men used James Cook, 45, to plant the drugs in a Fiat Punto belonging to part-time model Kim, who once dated Bradford FC striker Stan Collymore.
But the gang was snared after the police anti-corruption squad CIB3 launched their own covert enquiry.
Courtney chose not to testify as Judge Paul Collins told the jury that they may ‘draw such inferences’ against him for not doing so.
Ms Pinto, the mother of Courtney’s three children, said: ‘Dave holds the police in contempt.
He doesn’t do it in front of the children because I wouldn’t want them to see any display of hostility towards the police.
‘
She said he had known Warnes for about 10 years and regarded him as a ‘hanger-on’ in awe of Courtney’s celebrity status.
‘I knew Warnes was a bent copper.
Dave’s just got this aura.
He’s got a lot of colourful friends and he got Warnes to use his resources.
‘
Warnes has admitted passing on false information about the alleged drug habits of Miss James and a friend as part of the plot to ensure police raided her house.
Ms Pinto went on: ‘He said Warnes wanted him to help him out because they had seen him in our company and he had to explain why he had his phone number in the book.
He would need an excuse.
‘Making Dave look like a police informant is the way to do it.
‘It was all fabrication to help him get out of a bit of trouble.
He feared Warnes was capable of anything, like setting him up.
‘
Ms Pinto claimed they had found Warnes snooping around their house in the dead of night.
‘He claimed he was looking at the mural on the side of the house showing Dave as a knight in shining armour.
‘It’s been changed now so I’m on the back of the horse with him.
‘
She said Courtney was more worried about being called an informant than the facts of the case.
But he refused to give evidence on his own behalf against the charges of conpiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Earlier Courtney called close friend Ian Tucker as a witness to explain the relationship with Warnes.
Mr Tucker, who admitted he has ‘lots’ of criminal convictions, said it was an example where ‘police help villains.
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He said in June last year he went to his pal’s home and Courtney was ‘jumping up and down with a big smile on his face because he had something on Austin Warnes.
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Mr Tucker said he learnt that Warnes was in trouble and the cop needed Courtney to help him square the story to his bosses as to how he got the information used in the Kim James drug arrest.
The officer asked Courtney to say that he had supplied the lead about drugs being kept in a woman’s house.
Mr Tucker explained that Warnes wanted Courtney to say that he was an ‘informant’ in the matter.
‘What Warnes actually needed was someone to stand up in front of his boss and say: ‘Yes.
I told Austin Warnes there was drugs in a particular person’s house.
‘
But he denied Courtney was a grass and he also protested his pal’s innocence on the conspiracy charge.
‘I know Dave more than most people.
I can swear with my hand on my heart and on my baby’s heart that he is not one percent guilty of what he is accused of.
‘Warnes was in a corner and he needed to explain where he got this information from.
He said to Dave: ‘Can I come to you and say that you told me.
‘
‘Dave said yes,’ Mr Tucker added.
Courtney, of Camelot Castle (corr), (18) Chestnut Drive, Plumstead, southeast London, student James, of Northcote Road, Battersea, Rees, of Grange Road, Thornton Heath, and Cook, of Treetops, the Glades, Kingswood, Surrey.
They all deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Cook also has addresses in Wolseley Road, Mitcham Junction, and in Nightingale Close, Carshalton.
Warnes, of Heath Road, Dartford, has admitted the conspiracy charge and he will be sentenced later.
The trial continues.
ends
