It issued a statement to the media last Friday about the outcome of an investigation into the alleged conduct of former chief officer Ruari Hardy, and how that investigation by West Midlands Police had cleared him of lying in the Royal Court.
The statement included incorrect references that the complaint arose from a court appeal hearing against a decision to withdraw a firearms licence from an individual.
‘Those references should have referred to another civil case, brought by the same member of the public and his partner, following an incident at their home in October 2021,’ the statement said.
‘The complaint relevant to this investigation alleged the former chief officer knowingly provided false information in a statement to the court as part of this civil case.
‘The complaint which was investigated by West Midlands Police was very complex and referenced evidence submitted by the former chief officer to both the firearms revocation case and the civil case.
‘The Office of the Committee for Home Affairs, whose officers prepared the previous media statement, apologise to the complainants and the former chief officer, for referencing the firearms licence revocation appeal as being the proceedings in which the statement by the former chief officer was made.
‘Having acknowledged the point of clarification, it is very important that we restate unequivocally that the findings of the investigation by West Midlands Police into the complaint against the former chief officer were that there was no case to answer, which is a conclusion unaffected by the incorrect reference in the previous media statement.’
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