A former chief constable made inappropriate sexual remarks to colleagues, including telling a woman she could touch herself as they sat together in a car, a disciplinary hearing has found.
Mike Veale is a former chief constable of Cleveland and Wiltshire police forces. At Wiltshire he oversaw Operation Conifer, the controversial investigation into allegations that the late former prime minister Ted Heath was a child sexual abuser.
Veale, 57, faced a three-day disciplinary hearing in Middlesbrough where he denied making inappropriate remarks. On Wednesday a panel found “the allegations to be proved”, the chair, Sara Fenoughty, said. It ruled his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.
He was in charge of Cleveland when the claims were made and the case was brought by that force’s police and crime commissioner (PCC) after an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Summarising the allegations, Dijen Basu KC, for the PCC, said Veale was in a car with a woman referred to as Witness B in November 2018 when he read out a complimentary email he had received from a local councillor.
Basu said Veale then looked at her lap and said: “Go on, you can touch yourself now.”.
The second allegation was that during a visit to Norfolk constabulary HQ the following month, in front of other officers at a working lunch, Veale referred to Witnesses B and C as “bedfellows – metaphorically speaking or otherwise” before laughing.
Veale wrote to the force’s then PCC, Barry Coppinger, in January 2019 to say he was aware of allegations that he had made “sexualised comments” to colleagues, the hearing was told.
In the letter, 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.
Of the “touch yourself” allegation, Veale said Witness B may have misheard him saying she could “pinch” herself.
He denied using the word “bedfellows” as innuendo, saying it was a word he had used many times in a professional context.
Giving evidence about the letter, Veale denied he was apologising for making sexual comments and said the “offence” referred to the way he was upsetting staff with changes he was making to a struggling force.
