A POLICE informer who claimed officers failed to protect him after he helped to smash a massive drugs ring, has failed in a High Court bid for more than £100,000 compensation.

Judge Mr Justice Leveson said that informer Terry Donnelly, 60, had aided police, not for profit but in a public-spirited wish to help stamp out the evil of drugs.

He took action at enormous risk to himself after seeing drugs being sold to children where he lived. The judge said he deserved commendation and the gratitude of all right-thinking people.

Mr Donnelly helped officers of the now defunct North-East Regional Crime Squad "more or less continuously" during an operation code-named Buzzard, which culminated in August 1995.

The operation resulted in the arrest of five men, who were later given jail terms of between three and six and a half years.

The prisoner who received the longest sentence was released in December 1998.

Mr Donnelly, who now lives at a secret address, says a £40,000 contract has been placed on his head and he is living in constant fear for his life.

His lawyers said that police had offered to protect him by giving him a new identity and arranging work for him in America, away from the threats of reprisal.

That was a far cry from the friendless, fearful and isolated existence he was now enduring, the court heard.

Mr Donnelly, who has had to leave his Lincoln home, sued the chief constables of the ten forces which made up the North-East Regional Crime Squad - Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, West, North and South Yorkshire, Humberside, Cleveland, Durham, Northumbria and Nottinghamshire - and two police officers.

But the judge dismissed Mr Donnelly's breach of contract claim, "albeit with a substantial measure of regret bearing in mind the assistance he provided".

The police handling of Mr Donnelly's case had been "reasonable in the light of all the circumstances", he said.

From 1998, when Mr Donnelly moved to a secret address, the police had no idea of his whereabouts and had not been able to do anything for him, the court heard.

The judge said the problems Mr Donnelly faced had "arisen as much by misunderstanding as anything else".

The fact that his claim had been dismissed was no reflection on Mr Donnelly's honesty, the judge said.

He added: "I can only hope that he can now put this litigation behind him and, perhaps with some help, rebuild his life.