Former Perthshire police officer Iain Bell

A former senior police officer who played a key role in the G8 summit at Gleneagles and oversaw T in the Park has died after falling and sustaining a head injury.

Retired Superintendent Iain Bell was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee after the incident but it is understood life support was withdrawn by his family on Tuesday.

Mr Bell, who had been in charge of Tayside Police’s Western Division prior to his retirement, was 58. It is unclear if an underlying medical condition led to his collapse.

In his role as Perthshire’s most senior police officer, Mr Bell acted as the local liaison for international policing of the G8 world leaders summit at Gleneagles in 2005.

He also spent a number of years coordinating the policing of the T in the Park music festival at Balado, by Kinross, prior to his retirement.

A former colleague said: “Iain ran Western Division, and perhaps unusually for a commanding officer, he remained popular with the officers on the street.

“He was very down to earth and the news of his death at no age at all has come as a shock to a lot of people.

“I was told he had fallen and banged his head and ended up in hospital.”

Mr Bell served more than 30 years in the Tayside force, and retired a short time after hitting the headlines in a high-profile divorce case in 2007.

He was pursued for a settlement of more than £600,000 by his estranged wife after leaving her for a female police officer 21 years his junior.

Mr Bell was 50 when he left his wife of 25 years and set up home with fellow Tayside Police officer Leigh-Ann Gregge, 29, in 2007. His estranged wife Christine, who was 49, lodged papers at Perth Sheriff Court seeking a massive financial settlement as part of the divorce agreement.

A spokesman for Police Scotland declined to comment on the circumstances of Mr Bell’s death yesterday.

Mr Bell died after a fall.