As Chief Constable for Wiltshire, Mike Veale conducted an irresponsible and biased investigation of child sex abuse allegations against Sir Edward Heath between 2015 and 2017. Heath had been dead for ten years. Veale had no hesitation in trying to damage his reputation. He made up his mind that Heath was guilty.
Unable to find any evidence against Heath, he tried to save face by concluding that seven of the allegations might have some substance.
Forced to leave Wiltshire in 2018, he was briefly Chief Constable for Cleveland before being compelled to resign in the face of allegations of misconduct. They were subsequently investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which found that he had a case to answer for having “breached the standards of professional behaviour.”
A formal misconduct hearing in Cleveland, chaired by a lawyer, was announced last August. No one knows when it will actually begin.
In the meantime, amazingly, Veale is working as a “strategic adviser” to the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland.
Alistair Lexden has kept the House of Lords informed about this disgraceful state of affairs. Returning to it on 7 March, he asked: “How could it possibly be right for a disgraced former chief constable, deemed to have a case of serious misconduct to answer and with a legal hearing pending, to be receiving a salary in the region of £100,000 plus expenses from public funds as adviser to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland — who purports to be a Conservative, which makes the matter even worse?”
Other members across the House expressed outrage. But all the Home Office Minister in the Lords could say by way of reply was: “It is important that the various proceedings are followed before the IOPC and, indeed, the Home Office make a comment.”
The Government is now being pressed to get the legal hearing under way. The issue will come up again in the Lords on 7 April.
