Jailed: Killer’s police worker girlfriend who seduced officer in plot to unmask key witness

Sentenced: Lydia Lauro was jailed for five years at the Old Bailey
Met police
Tom Powell10 February 2017
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A police worker who seduced an officer in a plot to identify a protected witness in her boyfriend's murder trial has been jailed for five years.

Lydia Lauro, 33, got a civilian job at Hammersmith Police Station two months after her lover Leon De St Aubin was convicted of an execution-style shooting outside Wandsworth prison.

She seduced fellow police detention officer, Hayden Cheremeh, 36, and then used his log-in details to access the intelligence system.

Lauro handed the details of a protected anonymous prosecution witness to Aubin while he was behind bars.

She and Cheremeh were jailed for five years each at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Jailed: Hayden Cheremeh, 36, was also sentenced to five years behind bars
Met Police

Lauro did not show any emotion as the sentence was passed while Cheremeh refused to attend court.

Judge Anthony Morris said Lauro also used the database to lookup the details of people in custody at Hammersmith police station "in order to find sexual partners for yourself".

She leaked the details of a young woman who had given crucial evidence from behind a screen, using a voice-altering device and under a pseudonym.

Lauro plied Cheremeh with sexual favours to get his access to the system and looked up more than 150 confidential reports while trying to track down the witness.

She sent screenshots of a list of possible names of the witness to Diana Lank, the mother of Aubin's co-defendant, it was claimed.

The wealthy businesswoman, who ran a clothes shop in Chelsea, masterminded the plot after the witness testified against her son Rupert Ross.

She admitted receiving the confidential information but claimed her actions were justified, insisting her son had been wrongfully convicted.

Judge Morris described her as "forceful and manipulative".

Cheremeh, a former police community support officer, was totally obsessed with Lauro.

Jeminipe Akin-Olugbade, defending, described him as a "naive, infatuated and possibly over-idealistic person who got caught up in actions far greater than himself".

Cheremeh, of Clapham, and Lauro, from Earl's Court, were found guilty after trial of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office between November 2011 and May 2013.

Ms Lank was cleared of the same charge after the jury failed to agree on a verdict against her.

Aubin and Ross were handed a minimum term of 30 years in November 2011 for the shooting of Darcy Austin-Bruce.

Former Dulwich College pupil Ross was from a wealthy background, with some of his family working as lawyers, but fell under the spell of drugs.

He shot Mr Austin-Bruce, 20, five times outside the jail in May 2009, before Aubin drove him away on a stolen moped.

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