Northumbria's police and crime commissioner has defended a £10,000 payment to a convicted rapist to act as an informant in the investigation into a grooming gang on Tyneside.

Dame Vera Baird said: "I was made aware, in course of the trials that to facilitate this operation, Northumbria Police had intermittently used a paid, registered informant.

"This man was a criminal, with a conviction for rape as a teenager, and with later convictions for dishonesty and other offences which gave him access into the same circles as these exploiters.

"In 2016 this man turned against police making allegations of misconduct. A full investigation was held by IPCC who found that Northumbria Police had no case to answer.

"An application by the defence to stop the trials on the basis of use of the informant was rejected by a judge and the trials continued.

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"The decision to use this informant was an operational one, which could only be taken by police.

"However, I have a duty on behalf of the public of Northumbria to hold the chief constable to account for a matter which concerns a sum of public money and an issue of the highest public interest.

"I would have wished this man not to be used, in particular because of his conviction for rape.

"But, I have questioned the chief constable and in liaison with other senior officers, Mr Ashman has satisfied me that the difficult moral decision to use the informant was taken with care and with particular regard to the welfare of victims.

"I am assured that the information this male supplied has contributed to the investigation and hence to the prosecution of these dangerous men, that it could not have been obtained in any other way, and that it will have ensured the speedier rescue and safeguarding of vulnerable women who would otherwise have continued to suffer abuse."