Manchester police chief under criminal investigation

The Greater Manchester police chief has come under investigation for alleged criminal and gross misconduct in a case involving a suspected sex offender, Britain’s police watchdog says.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said Sir Peter Fahy is under criminal investigation over his role in a botched examination into a suspected sex offender.

The chief constable of Greater Manchester police has been served with the notice following allegations made by a whistleblower.

“As a chief constable you face making complex decisions on a daily basis about many high-risk and challenging situations. It is right that this decision-making is scrutinized and that I am held to account as part of this investigation,” Fahy noted.

Several senior Greater Manchester police officers have recently come under investigation in separate incidences.

Greater Manchester assistant chief constable Terry Sweeney was also served with a gross misconduct notice for his role in the disposal of body parts belonging to victims of the serial killer Harold Shipman, the IPCC said.

Meanwhile, a detective superintendent and a detective chief inspector have been served with criminal and gross misconduct notices for their alleged roles in a badly handled investigation into a suspected sex offender.

Britain currently has two chiefs from the country’s top ten police forces that are suspended pending an investigation.

UK police have been criticized recently over the handling of sexual assault cases, with reports showing they ignored a third of rape reports in a 12-month period.

Figures also indicated that there were about 10,000 recorded rapes of adults in England and Wales in the 12 months to March 2013, from which only 18 percent led to a sanction detection, where an offender was charged or cautioned for the offence.

An earlier report by Solicitor General Oliver Heald in response to a parliamentary question revealed that British police had sent only 5,404 rape cases out of the 17,061 reports they received in 2012-13 to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Britain’s top prosecutor Keir Starmer also warned that nine in ten rapes and other serious sexual assaults go unreported due to the victims’ distrust of the UK criminal justice system.