http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20067716 West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison has resigned. The resignation comes as his role in the aftermath of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster is being investigated. At the time of the tragedy, he was a South Yorkshire Police inspector who attended the match as a spectator and later took part in an internal inquiry. West Yorkshire Police Authority said media attention and the investigation by the police watchdog were "proving to be a huge distraction for the force". ---------------------------------------------------------------- His resignation was welcomed by relatives of the 96 Liverpool fans who were crushed to death in the 1989 tragedy at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough ground. The post on the Hillsborough Family Support Group's Twitter page simply said: "Yay! He's resigned!!"
What does this mean...? I assume he will still be investigated but does it mean he has given up his pension etc...? Edit: Frank just beat me to it
He will still get a pension because he has already served enough time to qualify for one. He would have been entitled to a full pension (whatever that means) in a few months time, this is the bit I'm questioning.
Of course it is, but he resigned last week, or possibly the week before. He's trying to finish before he gets investigated personally. This protects his pension. The fact that the panel needs to question almost 1500 coppers doesn't help either. Make sure you sign the petition below if you haven't already
Crafty bastard. Well there's still two options left - one is that Merseyside simply refuses to pay the portion of his pension for his time there as chief. make him sue for it and go through the courts, laying out all the evidence in public. Two is that victims (or indeed any fans there on the day who feel 'labelled') sue him en masse for defamation if the IPCC or courts find he had anything to do with the black ops programme. as i understand it, now he's resigned and if he's implicated in criminal activities whilst a serving officer, HE'LL have to pay out of his own pocket.... unless he admits he was following orders from SYP. This should get really interesting. Let's see if this code of silence stays in place if the rats are sued and picked off individually.
His pension entitlement is not sacrosanct. However, unless a 'smoking gun' can be found to prove that he personally has involved himself in some criminal activity it will be very difficult to prove that his entitlement should be forfeited. The easier target is his knighthood. That award will have been made in recognition of his services to policing. The mere fact that he was associated in a police cover-up strategy perpetrated to deflect blame from the police to the victims should be sufficient. However, the IPCC may find evidence of either his direct involvement in the cover-up, his management of the SYP internal review by using 'evidence' that he knew to have been 'tampered with' or his failure to inform appropriate authorities that a cover-up operation had been enacted. If the IPCC found evidence to support any or all of these allegations then not only will his knighthood be in jeopardy but potentially so will be his pension and maybe his freedom.
Just been on now that, as expected, the IPCC will continue their investigations but disciplinary action cannot be taken against him. So much for the man "who had nothing to hide".
Sooner rather than later one of the rats in Bettison's 'black propaganda' will lose his/her nerve and spill the beans on their covert operation. Hopefully this will lead to a private prosecution of Bettison(if he manages to evade the law)
@davidbartlett1: IPCC says probe into Bettison carrying on 'in public interest' and 'retirement or resignation does not prevent criminal prosecution' Slightly contradictory.
It could well be that the IPCC itself is limited in the scope of its powers to discipline officers. However should the IPCC find envidence against a former officer then they could and have said that they will, pass that evidence to the CPS
Our Mr Mansfield will be like a dog with a bone on this one. If there's a way to screw this **** he'll find it All I can say is good luck to him. Go get the scum bag and make him pay.
Whilst the response to his resignation is understandable, there's two things that do need to be considered: 1.) His police pension has already been secured, doubtless it is ironclad, so he won't be out of pocket after his resignation. 2.) If a member of the police force resigns, they cannot be put in front of an inquiry - as recently happened with the copper that killed Ian Tomlinson. The police have a talent for covering their own backsides when it looks like they're doing something, and this has all the hallmarks of the exact same thing. I'm still unclear on one thing, though - Hillsbrough's safety certificate expired in 1979 and was not renewed until the 1990s, which came up in the Taylor report, so why are The FA avoiding any of the criticism?
