POLICE in special duties squads have planted drugs on suspects and framed innocent people for crimes which could land them in jail, a former magistrate told the Sunday Morning Post yesterday.
Magistrate and coroner Rodney Venning, who retired last week, said he had presided over at least 10 trials during which he was certain police had ''set up'' defendants.
''I can identify 10 trials where that happened. Only two or three were by uniformed officers, the rest were special duties squads.'' Special duties squad members at Tai Po planted packets of heroin on people with histories of drug addiction and the Kwun Tong squad repeatedly framed newly arrived mainland Chinese on pickpocketing charges, he said.
''From my discussions with other long-term judges, most of them have suspicions of this,'' he said.
Mr Venning sat in magistrates courts at South Kowloon, Western, Kwun Tong, Fanling and the coroner's court for 13 years.
His suspicions were aroused during a pick-pocketing case brought by Kwun Tong special duties squad in 1985 and the last ''certain'' incident involved drugs charges laid by Tai Po police in 1992. Mr Venning moved to the coroner's court last year.
