A convicted criminal who tried to get a policeman to destroy evidence after he blabbed about a murder case while on a drink and drugs bender has been jailed.

The Met Police officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was warned by Lewis Adams he would be exposed if he did not get rid of evidence in a robbery Lewis was accused of.

The officer of 12 years had spent the night drinking and taking Class A drugs with Adams who had met him for the first time that night in Brighton.

Adams formed a bond with the officer and the pair ended up visiting "pubs, clubs and casinos" where they discussed the fatal shooting of a youth in Thornton Heath the officer was working on.

In a ruse to get his number Adams, 27, asked to borrow the officer's phone to ring his girlfriend.

Asked in court to describe how drunk he was with one being sober and 10 falling down drunk, the officer replied "20".

He woke up the next morning alone in a park in Brighton last July.

But within days Adams who had been arrested for robbery sent the officer text messages saying: "You need to do me a favour."

Further texts said a video of his warrant card would be put up on YouTube.

Adams demanded "Are you going to do something to help... or things are going to go downhill for you."

Other texts warned: "Your colleagues know you have been discussing a murder investigation, do we need to let the cat out of the bag?

"Find out what's going on with this case and find out what they have and get rid of it, get rid of the evidence."

Faced with the threats the officer handed himself in to the police's anti-corruption unit and Adams was charged with perverting the course of justice.

But at Adams's trial at Croydon Crown Court it emerged the robbery allegation was eventually dropped.

Giving evidence the officer claimed at the time his mental health was "out of control" and he was having "dark thoughts" when he left his parents' house in London to drink in Brighton.

Prosecutor Jonathan Edwards said CCTV captured the pair at various venues around Brighton.

Mr Edwards said: "They went to a casino, the officer was clearly worse for wear as he fell, cracking his head on the ground.

"The defendant had been working quite hard to gain as much information has he could.

"The next thing the PC remembers is waking up in a small park in Brighton at 10am.

"He was alone and his bank card was missing."

Adams was jailed for two years.