A police officer with the National Crime Squad has admitted running a drugs den where another officer and a serving prisoner bought and snorted cocaine.

Detective Sergeant David Redfern, 42, pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court to a charge of supplying cocaine, a count of offering to supply cocaine and two offences of possessing the drug.

Judge Charles Wide lifted restrictions preventing the reporting of his guilty pleas and of those of six other defendants in the case.

The court heard that Redfern, an acting detective inspector until 2000, was caught taking cocaine by a hidden video camera secretly installed by police at the home of his girlfriend Nicola Bladen, 35.

Cocaine and ecstasy

Bladen pleaded guilty to five charges of supplying cocaine, one count of possessing the drug, two offences of supplying cannabis and a charge of possessing ecstasy.

Michael Pert QC, prosecuting, said Bladen's home, in Dale End Road, Findern, Derbyshire, had been the centre of a drug-taking network.

Detective Constable Heather Bossart, 40, of Nottinghamshire Police, admitted a count of possessing cocaine at the address.

Heather Bossart admitted snortng cocaine

She was serving as an NCS officer at the time of her arrest on 28 April 2001.

David Jones, 38, also admitted a count of possessing cocaine at the house on 1 April 2001.

The court heard that at the time he was on day release from Ashwell prison in Oakham, Leicestershire.

Hidden camera

Redfern picked him up from the jail and drove him to Bladen's home.

"Jones had been arrested in 1997 by Redfern and sentenced to six and a half years in 1998 for drugs offences," Mr Pert said.

Redfern also admitted a count of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Pert said the camera and a microphone had recorded numerous conversations about the use of drugs as well as the sound of Redfern, his girlfriend and others snorting cocaine.

Hundreds of hours of pictures taken from the hidden camera, concealed in the kitchen, were useless because the device had been installed in a spot where Bladen's cat often sat.

Guilty pleas

The court was told Redfern had been returned from the National Crime Squad to Derbyshire Police in 2000 because of suspicions about his behaviour.

In December 2000, the squad was granted permission to install a secret camera in his house at Dale End Road.

The court was told Redfern initially claimed he was using the drugs as part of one of his own undercover operations.

Martin Raynor, 46, of Havenbaulk Lane, Littleover, Derby, admitted a charge of conspiring to supply cannabis.

Mark Hancock, 45, of Meynell Street, Derby, admitted a count of supplying cocaine, one of possessing cocaine and one of supplying cannabis.

Mark Hackett, 28, of Chapel Street, Kilburn, Derbyshire, admitted a charge of supplying cannabis.

Judge Wide adjourned the case for sentencing on 10 January.