'a resident pet nutter '

[Olympian]

Hello,

this is from "Special Report - Inside Rebekah Brooks' News of the World" on Yahoo news.

"We used to talk to career criminals all the time. They were our sources," says another former reporter from the paper who also worked for Murdoch's daily tabloid, the Sun. "It was a macho thing: 'My contact is scummier than your contact.' It was a case of: 'Mine's a murderer!' On the plus side, we always had a resident pet nutter around in case anything went wrong."

What is the meaning of 'a resident pet nutter'?

Thank you

[Rover_KE]

...a readily-available scapegoat - possibly someone whose sanity was questionable - to blame if things went wrong.

Rover

[Olympian]

@Rover_KE, thanks for the explanation. I understand it now. :)