News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Bent Scotland Yard detectives helped a gang get away with several murders, a former policeman has alleged.

And the mother of a victim of a gangland killing is convinced police covered up her son’s murder.

Candy Dawson held dying Rocky, 24, in her arms after he was shot in front of his two young children outside her home.

A retired Met detective has alerted the force to eight killings , including Rocky’s.

The source said of the killings: “Many have direct links to police corruption, or intelligence suggests they have been covered up by corrupt police officers.”

Candy, 54, said after we made her aware of the claims: “I’ve always believed in my heart that there was a cover-up.

“The police have told us there were others involved who have never been brought to justice, and I believe there’s information that’s been swept under the carpet.

"I’ve campaigned for nine years for justice for Rocky and I will not give up the fight until I find out the truth.”

(Image: PA/EMPICS)

The killings are among a number of investigations into an organised crime gang that have been tainted by bent officers over 25 years, it is alleged.

The gang is suspected of avoiding justice for decades by controlling a cabal of corrupt retired and serving Met police officers , the source claims.

The Met said it is not prepared to comment on the claims.

Read more:

Rocky was shot dead after putting his stepdaughter, then six, and son, two, into the back of his Fiat Punto outside Candy’s home in Hornchurch, Essex, in 2006.

He managed to crawl back into the house, where he died in his mum’s arms.

Gangland killers Christopher Pearman, 63, and James Tomkins, 66, were later jailed for life, but the Met believe others were involved in the hit.

As a result, Candy wrote to her son’s killers. And in 2012 Pearman agreed to see her in HMP Frankland, Co Durham.

(Image: PA/EMPICS)

Candy said: “I had to see the man who killed Rocky because I need to know the truth.

"I didn’t know how I was going to react, if I was going to go for him or sit down calmly and talk. But you’d do anything for your children.

“I know Rocky might not be here, but he is in my heart and I can’t stop fighting to find out who ordered the murder.”

Pearman claimed he and Tomkins had been paid £5,000 each to kill her other son Ross, 30, by a businessman who suspected he was one of two masked armed robbers who had raided his home.

Candy said: “He said the attack was meant for my other boy, but when Rocky came out of the house Tomkins said, ‘His brother will do’.

"I was sitting opposite him with just a table between us so I could have gone for him, but I didn’t.”

She went on: “He named a man who he said paid them and why, and I told him that I was going to tell the police.

"I asked if he would tell them what he told me and he said he would do what he could.”

(Image: East News Press Agency)

In a later prison letter, Pearman told Candy he had spoken detectives.

He wrote: “I told them that I was now doing what I could to make things right by telling them what I knew, and that although I didn’t want to do so, if I had to give evidence I would do so.

“They said something to the effect that even with my evidence it would be difficult to reopen the case because I couldn’t give them evidence that was sufficiently strong enough.

“Got the impression that the police position was that they had got the man who pulled the trigger on your son, Tomkins, and they had got the mug who had driven the car, me, and so that was the case closed.”

(Image: PA)

But sources say Pearman – whose son Darren was stabbed to death in a nightclub brawl in Chigwell, Essex, in 1999 – has refused to sign a witness statement.

After Darren’s death, Pearman was named in a 2002 Scotland Yard report into police corruption.

Club doorman Ronnie Fuller had been charged with taking part in Darren’s killing, but the case was dropped.

A year later, Fuller was shot dead in a contract hit outside his home in Grays, Essex. No one has been convicted of his and Darren’s murders.

The Operation Tiberius report states that at the time of writing Pearman’s life was thought to be under threat, because police believed he shot Fuller and three individuals had made it clear they intended to kill him in retaliation.

The report included a chapter on the gang linked to Rocky’s murder and police corruption, stating: “The syndicate has achieved this invulnerability through a mixture of utilising corrupt police contacts and the intimidation of witnesses brave enough to give evidence against them.”

Read more:

It names suspected corrupt officers working for the gang as including a then serving detective constable, a former detective chief superintendent and two other retired officers.

It added: “The syndicate is one of the most violent groups... and have been responsible for a series of vicious assaults against debtors and rivals.

“Their main sphere of influence is drug importation and protection.”

Responding to the retired Met officer’s claims, Labour MP Clive Efford said: “These are very serious allegations that require a proper response from the Metropolitan Police.

“They should be examined by somebody outside of the police, preferably an eminent barrister, because too often we have seen these things investigated by fellow officers who really don’t do a satisfactory job.”

He added: “Only an independent investigation will really satisfy the public that no stone has been left unturned to get to the truth.”

Robert Barrington, of anti-corruption campaign Transparency International , said: “This government has said some bold things about tackling corruption, and the Met also talks a good game.

"It’s time we saw some action.”

Seven more murders which may have been covered up

Nicky 'Snakehips' Gerard

(Image: Mirrorpix)

The gangland enforcer was suspected of 10 killings when he was shot dead in Canning Town, east London in June 1982.

Gerard was gunned down on his daughter’s 11th birthday as he got into his car near his home.

His killers shot him once and chased him down the street, before clubbing him with a gun and shooting him again in the head.

(Image: Mirrorpix)

Armed robber Tommy Hole was arrested and charged with the murder after an identity parade but his accuser later backed down and he walked free from the Old Bailey in 1983.

Hole, 57, was shot dead in the Beckton Arms pub in Canning Town in 1999 along with childhood friend Joey 'The Crow' Evans, 55.

Terry Gooderham and Maxine Arnold

(Image: PA/Press Association Images)

Pub accountant Gooderham, 39, was shot dead in his black Mercedes with girlfriend Arnold, 32 in Epping Forest, Essex, in 1989.

Both had been shot in the back of the head.

Gooderham had been the stocktaker for a number of clubs in London.

Bruno 'Tiger' Hrela

The 33-year-old former boxer and bodyguard, was shot twice in the head in Enfield, north London in March 2005.

His body was found on the pavement next to his silver Mercedes.

Two men were believed to have been involved in the suspected contract killing which remains unsolved.

Barry Dalton

The former bare-knuckle prizefighter was found dead in his car on the outskirts of Alexandra Palace, north London, in September 1992.

He had been shot in the head at point-blank range.

Lennie Naylor

(Image: Mirrorpix)

Naylor, 46, a convicted drug dealer, was shot dead by a hitman wearing a balaclava on the drive of his home in the village of Istead Rise, near Gravesend, Kent, in April 2001.

The dad of one was returning from visiting his father when he was gunned down.

Naylor had also been arrested in connection with an attempted murder but was never charged.

Nobody has ever been convicted of his murder.

Del Croxson

The hired hitman died from an apparent drug overdose in 1994 after being supplied heroin in prison where he was on remand accused of carrying out a killing.

Croxson, 34, was given drugs which were far more potent than anything he had previously used.

He overdosed in his cell and died with the needle still stuck in his vein.