Top detective Colin Sutton who caught serial killer Levi Bellfield and Night Stalker rapist becomes police and crime adviser to Reform UK
Colin Sutton, who led the hunt for serial killer Levi Bellfield and 'Night Stalker' rapist Delroy Grant, has been appointed Reform UK's first police and crime adviser.
The former detective chief inspector will develop the party's pledge to halve crime in five years by hiring 30,000 extra police and investigating every reported offence.
Leader Mr Farage said: 'Colin Sutton will be a huge asset to Reform UK.'
In an interview with the Mail, Mr Sutton - who was played by Martin Clunes in the TV drama Manhunt, about the investigations into Bellfield and Grant - set out more of the measures he believes will clean up Britain's streets, restore public trust in police and make joining the force a more attractive career.
He would give all frontline officers Tasers, reopen 300 mothballed police stations, and stop police investigating online spats.
Mr Sutton, 64, said: 'Absolute respect to the young men and women who serve their communities and do the job, but do they actually do it because they want to be policing Twitter, or because they want to catch burglars and rapists and robbers?'
He said 'a police station with a blue lamp' would be a reassuring sight for people walking in boarded-up town centres at night.
He said he would even consider scrapping some of the laws against online abuse, adding: 'I don't mean hate or incitement, but people who are abused, let's make it like a watered-down version of defamation, then you can sue in the civil court.
'Don't give them legal aid and see how many feelings are hurt then.
'I accept that persistent and horrible abuse on social media can be very distressing and cause real problems psychologically.
'There's got to be better ways of dealing with it than sending half a dozen officers round.'
Mr Farage said he wanted 'big, strapping' officers, but Mr Sutton said the best two police officers he ever worked with were women, and that at one stage 14 out of the 30 detectives in his murder squad were female.
Mr Sutton joined the Tory Party as a teenager in Enfield, north London, but like all new recruits he was required to cease political activism when he joined the Met.
He said he and many fellow officers would never forgive the Tories for the cuts imposed by Theresa May when she was home secretary, saying she and former prime minister David Cameron's government did 'more harm to policing than anybody ever'.
He claims some chief constables would 'breathe a sigh of relief' under a Reform government.
Mr Sutton joined Reform when Mr Farage returned to lead the party at last year's general election.
He said: 'It's not about power, it's not about status or anything like that - it's about actually making a difference.'
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