Assistant Chief Constable faces further misconduct investigation

PIRC received the anonymous complaints against Bernard Higgins on Thursday

Published 18th Jan 2018

A senior police officer could be under a further misconduct investigation after another two allegations were made against him.

The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) received the complaints against Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins on Thursday.

Mr Higgins is already the subject of two investigations by the watchdog.

He had been suspended in November by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) after “a number of criminal and misconduct allegations”.

Both complaints had been made anonymously to the commissioner, who referred them on December 22 to the SPA as the body responsible for carrying out initial assessments.

The watchdog is now assessing whether the latest allegations, if proved, would amount to misconduct, gross misconduct or neither.

It will then decide whether they too should be investigated.

Pirc is also looking into separate allegations of gross misconduct against Scotland's top police officer Chief Constable Phil Gormley.