THIS is the picture that spelled the end of the bizarre friendship between a crime youth worker and a dangerous fugitive.

Clare Greenhalgh hoped the relationship would remain a secret but it was unmasked when police burst into her home to arrest ANOTHER fugitive.

As they searched the house they came across the photo stuck on the fridge. It showed her and Aaron Williams sitting on her sofa. Another picture found there showed him eating pizza and in a third he was posing outside with a motorbike.

A copy of a newspaper on one of the pictures allowed police to work out that it had been taken on July 1, 2007 - four months after Williams went on the run.

As reported in the M.E.N, he had been sprung from a security van as it arrived at Salford Magistrates' Court. In a scam which echoed a plot from hit TV series Life on Mars, Williams' escape was made to appear like a kidnapping.

While on the run he took part in a violent £70,000 robbery at a building society in East Yorkshire.

Greenhalgh was employed by Trafford council but was seconded to Salford council's Youth Offending Team working on the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme. She was suspended after being arrested by police last year.

Now she has been given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, after admitting assisting an offender (Williams) between May 1 and July 20 last year and a second charge of harbouring an offender, which related to a second man, Stephen Burton, who was unlawfully at large between July 26 and August 4 last year.

The court was told Greenhalgh had known Williams as an acquaintance and friend of her ex partner. He was featured on Crimewatch as part of a robbery appeal broadcast on June 4, 2007.

The prosecution said Greenhalgh saw that programme and knew the crime for which he was wanted. The escape from a prison van was well publicised and featured on local television and in local newspapers. She admitted she was aware of that escape.

She said one of the reasons for taking the photos was she knew it was the last time she would see him because she knew he would be going to prison for a long time when he was caught.

Greenhalgh, from Salford, was also made the subject of a 10pm to 6am curfew for two months.

A Trafford council spokesman said: "Now that these proceedings have resulted in her conviction the council is dealing with the matter in accordance with the council's disciplinary policies and procedures."

Williams was caught after being spotted by two off duty officers shopping in Rawtenstall. He was jailed for 12 years.