Delroy Denton

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Delroy Denton was a London criminal affiliated with the Yardies who became a police informant during the early 1990s. Facing deportation following his arrest during a police raid of Brixton's Atlantic pub in May 1994, Denton agreed to become a police informer after being approached by Brian Fotheringham and Steve Barker. Although immigration officials reported Delroy to be "..[a] dangerous Jamaican criminal, given 16 years in Jamaica for firearms/aggravated burglary offences" who had fled Jamaica for the murder of seven women, he was allowed to remain in the country and soon released from custody. ^[1]

While in the service of SO11, the criminal intelligence division of Scotland Yard, Denton committed several violent crimes including the sexual assault of a 15-year-old schoolgirl on December 19 and, on February 1, 1995, he would be acquitted of rape charges due to lack of evidence. The following April, Denton murdered 24-year-old trainee beautician Marcia Lawes after sexually assaulting and then stabbing her 18 times after breaking into her Brixton residence. Although initially arrested by police on June 28, he would be released due to lack of evidence on November 1, 1995.

Becoming the subject of an investigation by the Number Five Area Major Investigation Pool, detectives informed Fotheringham of Denton's immigration status, however, he took no action Baker continued to meet with Denton.

However, to the protest of senior officials within SO11, Denton would later be retried and convicted for her murder for which he would be sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1996. His later appeal to the House of Lords would be declined.

Going to court, the family of Marcia Lawes successfully petitioned to sue the Metropolitan Police and Home Office on the grounds that, by allowing Denton to be an informer, police had acted unlawfully in permitting a man with a violent criminal record to remain free by endangering the public, the first lawsuit to be brought against the Home Office and London police officials.