Unmasked, policeman who gave two killers their victim's address after road rage row

Stephen Smith, 49, used the police national computer to find Bernard Gilbert's address on behalf of an assailant hell-bent on revenge after a row over a parking space.

The officer's involvement in the tragedy can be revealed after two brothers were found guilty of manslaughter by a jury yesterday at the end of a two-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

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PC Smith, a police officer for 24 years, resigned from the Derbyshire force before he could be sacked.

A police source said Smith had kept his pension, but it was frozen at the point he resigned.

The court heard that 79-year-old Mr Gilbert, of Spondon, near Derby, argued with Zoe Forbes, 26, after she "nipped into" the parking space he was intending to use at their local Asda in January last year.

She wrote down his car number and passed it to her husband Mark, who gave it to a friend, Dale Phillips, who knew Smith.

The court heard that the following day, 40-year-old Forbes texted his wife, assuring her: "I've got someone on to it.

"Fingers crossed, I'll get an address. Then we'll smash his car to bits - and then his hire car and then whatever he gets after that until he dies."

Smith traced the pensioner's address and it was passed back to Forbes, who sent another text reading: "Bingo! Number 17, your time is up!"

Days later, armed with the information supplied by Smith, Forbes and his brother Steven drove to the pensioner's bungalow and Steven, 22, hurled a half-brick through the window while Mr Gilbert was watching television.

The former Rolls Royce aero worker collapsed in front of his wife Betty.

By the time a paramedic arrived, he was already dead. He was later found to have been suffering from angina.

Smith, of Oakerthorpe, Derbyshire, admitted disclosing personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act 1988 at Derby Magistrates' Court in March last year and was fined £1,200.

Middleman Dale Phillips, 37, pleaded guilty to the same charge and was fined £1,000.

Prosecutors accepted that neither man knew what the information would be used for.

Marcell Simmons, representing Smith, told magistrates: "He has always worked to protect the public. The situation he has now found himself in he very much regrets and is very sorry."

Smith was living with a girlfriend and their children but the couple recently split up and he now stays with his mother, Joan.

He refused to comment yesterday but his mother said he had been under stress at work at the time of the incident.

She said: "It has affected him immensely. Steve had been suffering from stress and depression - and still is - and I have been left to pick up the pieces.

"He has found a new job, but he is still suffering because of all this. Why won't people leave him alone?"

Mark Forbes, a paint sprayer, of Ripley, Derbyshire, and jobless Steven Forbes, of South Normanton, Derbyshire, were each convicted of manslaughter.

In a highly unusual case, jurors unanimously decided the brothers were responsible for Mr Gilbert's death even though they never saw him during the incident.

Zoe Forbes was cleared earlier in the trial on the direction of the judge.

All three admitted conspiracy to damage property, and Steven Forbes, who threw the brick, admitted criminal damage.

Mark Forbes was also found guilty of criminal damage.

The brothers were remanded in custody until April for reports.