Former chief constable guilty of misconduct
AFORMER chief constable who told a female officer she could touch herself as they sat together in a car has been found guilty of gross misconduct.
Mike Veale was judged by a disciplinary panel to have made unwanted sexual remarks to colleagues during his time as head of Cleveland Police in 2018.
The misconduct hearing in Middlesbrough was told that Mr Veale, 57, was in a car with a female colleague, referred to as Witness B, in November that year when he read out a complimentary email he had received from a local councillor.
He then looked at her lap and said “Go on, you can touch yourself now”, the panel heard.
Mr Veale was also found to have inappropriately commented in front of others that the same female colleague and a male senior officer, referred to as Witness C, were “bedfellows – metaphorically speaking or otherwise” before laughing.
He denied the allegations, saying the female officer may have misheard him saying she could “pinch herself”.
Mr Veale also denied using the word “bedfellows” as innuendo, saying it is a word he has used many times in a professional context.
On Wednesday, chairwoman Sara Fenoughty said: “We preferred the evidence of Witnesses B and C and find the allegations to be proved.”
The panel later ruled that Mr Veale’s behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.
Cleveland’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) brought the case following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Arguing that Mr Veale’s behaviour amounted to gross misconduct, Dijen Basu KC, for the PCC, said: “These were sexualised comments by a chief constable to those who are considerably junior to him.
“It’s a lonely place if you are with your chief constable when they make that sort of comment, with that sort of gesture.”
Summarising the case earlier in the hearing, Mr Basu said the second allegation was that, during a visit to Norfolk Constabulary HQ in December 2018, Mr Veale referred to Witnesses B and C as “bedfellows – metaphorically speaking or otherwise” before laughing.
He then repeated the remark that evening in a hotel bar.
Mr Veale wrote to the force’s then-PCC, Barry Coppinger, on January 16 2019, to say he was aware of allegations that he had made “sexualised comments” to colleagues, the hearing was told.
In the letter, Mr Veale said he was “mortified if I have caused offence to anyone” and accepted “there may have been comments made during conversation with colleagues they may have considered inappropriate”.
He said the letter was intended as an “apology if my actions caused anyone to be upset or offended”.
The next day, he served a notice of his retirement with immediate effect after 10 months in his post at Cleveland Police, the panel was told.
Giving evidence about the letter at the disciplinary hearing, Mr Veale denied he was apologising for making sexual comments and said the “offence” referred to the way he was upsetting staff with his changes to the struggling force.