A former undercover police officer has spoken about having to dress as a schoolgirl to help capture a vile paedophile.
Danni Brooke, 39, spent a decade in the Metropolitan Police where she played a vital role in taking down criminals including drug dealers and paedophiles.
The mum-of-two, who also appeared on Channel 4’s The Hunted, has spoken about her time in the force and the dangerous undercover work she carried out in her new book The Girl For The Job: True Stories From My Life As An Undercover Cop.
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Ahead of the book’s release, Danni told the Sun that when doing undercover her ‘white, straight teeth’ often made it difficult for her to try and disguise herself as a ‘heroin or crack user’, but says she would use a cover story that she was buying for her boyfriend.
During another undercover operation, Danni - who was almost 30 at the time - was tasked with dressing as a schoolgirl and standing in a north London bus stop in the hopes of helping to catch a paedophile who committed more than 100 assaults on children as young as 12.
She told the Sun: “At the safety briefing, they chucked the uniform at me.
"You can imagine the laughter, as I’m a grown woman and a mother, dressed in a tiny checked skirt, over-the-knee socks and blazer.
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“I’ve done hundreds of decoy jobs and never had a result so I didn’t expect it to work.
“But I stood at the bus stop for two hours at a time. On the last day I saw a man looking at me, but because I had been shocked at the number of men who heckle schoolgirls every day, I didn’t think anything of it.
“My phone rang and the senior investigating officer told me we were ending the job.
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"I went to walk away and the man grabbed me from behind, pulled me to the ground and got on top of me, exposing himself.
"The safety team swooped in about 30 seconds, although it felt a lot longer to me.”
It was later revealed the man was a convicted sex offender and Danni was awarded a commissioner’s commendation for her work.
However, the former cop says it was the words of a victim’s parent that really made proud of the job.
“One of the mums wrote me the most incredible letter saying her daughter doesn’t wet the bed any more, no longer needs sleeping tablets and was almost back to her normal self,” she said.
Claire Reid