Press tries to entrap me, says Paddick

Commander Brian Paddick, Britain's most senior openly gay police officer, has accused journalists of trying to entrap him using salacious emails.

And he believes that other gay and lesbian police officers will now think twice about coming out, having witnessed what has happened to him.

He makes the claims in an interview with Gay Times magazine, which may be the last he gives for some time. It is understood Scotland Yard has put a gagging order on the commander, who has been transferred to other duties from his post as head of Lambeth police, pending an investigation into allegations of drug-taking, made against him by his ex-lover.The commander says he has been sent obscene emails via the alternative website urban75.com. "One was from a guy who claimed to work in the City," Mr Paddick said. "He said I seemed to like the sort of man who would have sex, no questions asked."

Mr Paddick also claims The Mail on Sunday phoned him about his use of Clarins and Clinique products. "What has the fact that I have used Clinique and Clarins products got to do with my ability to run a police service?

"The depths to which they [the tabloids] are prepared to sink, in order to try to undermine me, are extraordinary," he said. "There will be gay and lesbian officers who will be petrified of coming out."