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'Abandoned' undercover cop sues police
From:  By Rhett Watson
August 20, 2005
 
LIFE as an undercover cop was a wild ride for Robert Ridley but in July 1992, as he sat down with drug dealers to smoke a cannabis joint laced with heroin, he realised how much he had changed.
 
He believed his undercover roles of drug dealer or outlaw bikie had overtaken reality - that of a senior constable with a wife and friends outside the shadowy world he inhabited.
He has alleged in a civil suit against the State Government that the NSW Police's lack of psychological support resulted in a spiral into depression, anxiety, paranoia and drug and alcohol dependence.
 
The toll allegedly occurred during four strenuous years from 1990 with the Special Forces Undercover Unit where Mr Ridley masqueraded as a bikie and drug dealer.
 
His claim, being heard in the District Court, has revealed one former officer's view of how the force handled its undercover operatives.
 
In his opening statement for Mr Ridley, Rick Burbidge QC alleged the force's lack of psychological support left his 42-year-old client battling demons and culminated in a full emotional breakdown, ending Mr Ridley's career.
 

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Before the 1992 heroin incident, there were few drugs Mr Ridley had not tried in the line of duty - taking them had become part and parcel of ensuring his cover was not blown.
The day he snorted "a huge line of speed" straight off a hunting knife held under his nose by a member of the Rebels Motorcycle Gang still lived with Mr Ridley, Mr Burbidge said.
 
He worked as many as seven operations at a time - and struggled to remember his cover stories.
 
"It was quite difficult during the course of a shift to remember which drug you were buying sometimes," Mr Ridley said when briefly taking the stand yesterday.
 
Living under the constant threat of being discovered, he was also on the receiving end of his colleagues' high-powered rifles during arrests and was once kicked unconscious by an officer unaware he was an undercover agent.
 
Mr Burbidge alleged that, despite his client raising concerns, the only time he was sent to a psychologist was at his superior - Detective Inspector Mick Drury's - request.
 
"No advice of any kind was forthcoming in relation to his growing problem with alcohol and drugs," Mr Burbidge said.
 
Mr Ridley had spent the past 13 years looking over his shoulder, waiting for a contract killer to find him after one of his targets, Russian gangster Alex Nuchimov, put a price on his head.
 
The Russian heroin dealer was arrested in 1992 following a 12-month undercover operation.
 
Mr Ridley and his first wife went into witness protection but the matter worsened when Nuchimov escaped two years later.
 
The case continues on Monday.
 
 

 

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