A young police intelligence analyst today denied being involved in corruption relating to the secret criminal Encrochat network.
Natalie Mottram, a Cheshire Police employee, appeared in court today over claims classified information was accessed on law enforcement computers.
The 22-year-old, from Warrington, on secondment at the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) when the investigation began in June last year, this afternoon entered not guilty pleas.
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The Warrington woman denied four counts of unauthorised access to computer material and one count of perverting the course of justice at a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court this morning.
Jonathan Kay, who also faces charges, did not appear today following complications with a positive Covid-19 test and he will enter a plea at a date later this month.
His partner Leah Bennett, also 36 like Kay, and both of Newark Drive, Great Sankey, Warrington, pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Kay was charged with perverting the course of justice and two counts of failing to comply with a notice under the Section 49 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
A trial will take place in June, next year, expected to last for two weeks.
All three defendants were released on bail.
It is alleged that Mottram, with others, disclosed information that law enforcement could access encrypted EncroChat data as the European-wide Operation Venetic was underway.
She was suspended from work.
Mottram, of Vermont Close, Great Sankey, was arrested by National Crime Agency officers, as part of an Independent Office for Police Conduct directed investigation.
Operation Venetic, led by the NCA, uncovered alleged "insider threat" offending from a range of nominals working in positions of responsibility.
Venetic was the biggest ever investigation into UK serious organised crime which laid bare with significant links to high-level gun and drug offending.
A massive probe running covertly last year led to an initial 746 arrests across Europe, entire top-level gangs dismantled, £54m of criminal cash seized, along with 77 guns and two tonnes of drugs - at the time the hack was made public.
Crime bosses and those they employ used EncroChat, a secure mobile phone instant messaging service to try and avoid detection.
But an international law enforcement team cracked the company’s encryption.
