Ex-cop pleads guilty to misleading PIC

09/02/2010 | 11:16 AM

Allegations that disgraced Sydney cop Adam Purcell tipped off a well-known NRL player about a police investigation have been dropped, a court has heard.

Former superintendent Adam Purcell on Tuesday was due to face a committal hearing in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on eight charges including giving false evidence, misconduct in a public office, and perverting the course of justice.

Instead, Nicole Paul from the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said the department had agreed to a plea deal.

Purcell pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one charge of misconduct in a public office and one charge of giving misleading evidence before the Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

The charges relate to evidence during a PIC investigation into claims that Purcell tipped off the NRL player about an investigation.

The allegations concerning that alleged tip-off were dropped as part of the plea deal.

"(Purcell gave a witness) confidential information regarding a sexual assault that occurred on the fourth of October, 2006," Ms Paul told Magistrate Mark Buscombe.

"(At the PIC in April 2007) he gave evidence that did not disclose his conversations with a witness."

Purcell has been committed to be sentenced in the Downing Centre District Court on February 26.