Top cop takes early retirement after scandal over messages about colleague
A FORMER Scots police chief who was at the centre of a smutty text message scandal has been forced to step down from policing.
Justine Curran announced her early retirement as chief constable of Humberside Police following a vote of no confidence by staff.
Curran, who was dubbed “virtually invisible” by Humberside’s police and crime commissioner, had taken charge there in 2013 after leaving her job as chief constable of Tayside Police.
Her career in Scotland was marred by scandal after she was caught talking about a colleague’s manhood with her former personal assistant in 2012.
The saucy messages were uncovered after an internal probe was launched into an alleged insurance fraud by PA Theresa Noble.
The text exchange was triggered by the chief constable, who was out of the office at the time.
She wanted to know if a senior colleague was in the Dundee HQ that day after he was suspected of having an affair with a civilian worker.
Curran sent Noble a text saying: “Is XXX there?” Noble replied: “No, he’s probably with XXX?”
The chief constable then wrote: “He must have a big willy,” to which Noble responded: “Yuck.”
The affair saw a police car sent to an address to check if cars belonging to the pair were there.
Curran’s Blackberry was seized after she was suspended and the messages came to light.
Neither woman faced any disciplinary action but Noble later resigned after the fraud probe against her was dropped.
Following the investigation into the messages, a threepage document listing a raft of complaints against Curran was given to a local newspaper.
Curran was cleared of all allegations made against her.
In 2013, she was listed as one of the favourites to take over at the new Police Scotland but lost out to former Strathclyde chief Stephen House.
She announced her plans to retire in after a staff survey found that 67 per cent either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: “I have confidence in the chief officers and senior managers leading Humberside Police.”
Curran said it was “not an easy decision to leave something I am passionate about and have given a huge commitment to”.
It was not easy to leave something that I’m passionate about JUSTINE CURRAN