Chief Constable David Westwood has been suspended
Home Secretary David Blunkett today won a High Court judgement in London. In his ruling Mr Justice Stanley Burnton requires that Humberside Police Authority suspend the Chief Constable 'forthwith' and refused the Police Authority the right to appeal. This brings to the expected conclusion the dispute betwen David Westwood, Humberside Police Authority and the Home Secretary as to whether Blunkett was acting within his powers in seeking the immediate suspension of the Chief Constable as a result of the severe criticism he received in the Bichard Inquiry report into the circumstances surrounding the Soham murders.
I did not expect any other outcome. Whether it is sensible (or sane) for the Home Secretary to have been given (or in reality have taken to himself) the powers under which he acted is a completely separate matter which probably needs to be looked at, but even more probably will not be.
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