STAKE-OUT Undercover police pose as gang of decorators in the hunt for a killer

STAKE-OUT Undercover police pose as gang of decorators in the hunt for a killer

Saturday, October 24, 1998

By Paul Whitehouse

And Bob Westerdale

UNDERCOVER police dressed as workmen to spy on a suspect in Sheffield’s unsolved Pat Grainger murder case.

Officers took over a house yards away from the north Sheffield address of a man suspected of killing pat, whose body was found in a brook near her Parson Cross home in August 1997.

Highly-sophisticated surveillance equipment was used by the ‘decorators’ in the covert operation aimed at gathering evidence which could have linked the man to Pat’s murder.

He was one of several men who came under scrutiny from detectives following the death of pat.

But the unusual operation failed to provide any evidence which would have allowed police to make criminal charges.

Single mum pat, aged 25 died a week after she had disappeared from her home in Buchanan Road, Parson Cross, Where she lived with her son Danny and her mum and step dad.

She had been stabbed and her body was covered with rubbish, semi-submerged in the water, where it was discovered by playing children.

It is thought she had died the day before her body was discovered.

Det Supt Derek Deakin, who is leading the hunt for Pat’s killer, said “It is not the policy of South Yorkshire Police to confirm or deny whether technical equipment has been used in any investigation if we do use such equipment it has to be authorised at ACPO level.”

That means at the rank of assistant chief constable or above. The most intrusive types of operation would need the Chief constable’s agreement.

At one stage in the investigation a Parson Cross man was charged with Pat’s murder, but the allegation was dropped before he faced trial.