Cleveland Police chief Mike Veale told colleague to 'touch yourself'

Mike Veale stepped down from Cleveland Police in 2019

A former police chief constable told a female colleague she could touch herself as they were sitting together in a car, a misconduct panel has heard.

Mike Veale, who led Cleveland Police, is also said to have commented on another occasion that the woman and a male senior officer were "bedfellows - metaphorically speaking or otherwise".

Mr Veale denies making remarks of a sexual nature.

He left the force in January 2019 after less than a year.

The 57-year-old faces a week-long disciplinary hearing in Middlesbrough after Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Steve Turner brought the case following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Mr Veale could be barred from working for the service if gross misconduct is proven.

Representing the PCC, Dijen Basu KC said Mr Veale had been in a car with a colleague referred to as Witness B in November 2018 with the pair on their way to visit the chief executive of Stockton Council.

After reading out a complimentary email he had received from a local councillor, the panel was told Mr Veale looked at the woman's lap and said "go on, you can touch yourself now".

'Making a joke'

Mr Basu alleged the following month during a working lunch as part of a visit to a police base in Norfolk, Mr Veale referred to Witness B and a senior male officer known as Witness C as "bedfellows" before laughing.

The panel heard the comments amounted to a breach of professional standards.

The barrister said Mr Veale denies glancing at the woman's lap in the car and that he said he had been "making a joke about the fact she could pinch herself at being in the presence of such a well-regarded chief constable".

Regarding the second allegation, Mr Veale did not dispute using the word "bedfellows" but will claim he said it without innuendo, Mr Basu said.

The panel's chairwoman, Sara Fenoughty, agreed to an application by Witness B for her evidence to be given in private, away from the press and public.

Before joining Cleveland Police, Mr Veale led a controversial inquiry at Wiltshire Police into sexual allegations against the late prime minister Sir Edward Heath.

In December 2022 he was given the interim job of chief executive officer for the PCC for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, but stepped down after just two months.