Murder convicts' mother and girlfriend hack police database to uncover identity of protected witness

Two Metropolitan police detention officers hacked into the office's intelligence database and got access to the identity of an anonymous witness in a 2011 murder trial in which two men were convicted.

One of the police detention officers, Lydia Lauro, is reportedly the girlfriend of one of the convicts in the murder case, Leon De St Aubin, 38, who was sentenced to life imprisonment along with Rupert Ross, 34, for the "vicious execution" of Darcy Austin-Bruce on 1 May, 2009.

Lauro, Ross' mother Diana Lank, and another police detention officer are jointly charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office between 1 November, 2011, and 22 May, 2013, The Guardian reported. They however, deny the charges.

The Old Bailey court was told that two months after the conviction of Ross and Aubin, Lauro got a job as a civilian worker at Hammersmith police station. With help from fellow Metropolitan police detention officer Hayden Cheremeh, the 33-year-old then illegally accessed the intelligence system at the police station using Cheremeh's log-in credentials. She then obtained information about the protected witness, a young woman, who had testified in the murder trial.

This information was then "passed on to others ... who should not have had access to it", the court was reportedly told.

"These two defendants abused the very great trust placed in them," prosecutor Mark Heywood QC was quoted by the publication as saying during the trial.

He further said that the case "concerns a persistent, determined and ultimately successful attempt by these three defendants to gain access to and penetrate the digital criminal intelligence system of the Metropolitan police service for their own purposes."