Probe into chief constable’s love-life

An independent police investigation has been launched into the tangled private life of Greater Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd.

Senior officers will examine whether Mr Todd - who is believed to have committed suicide last week on Mount Snowdon in North Wales - brought his own force into disrepute by his affairs.

The inquiry will be carried out by West Midlands Police into Mr Todd, once tipped to be the next head of the Metropolitan Police, who came to Greater Manchester in 2002.

It has been revealed that he had a series of relationships with police colleagues and a national newspaper journalist, Andrea Perry.

And it has also been reported over the weekend that officers from his own force were called to the home of one of his mistresses, businesswoman Angie Robinson, chief executive of the Greater Manchester Chamber.

He is said to have sent threatening messages to her and turned up at her home in Cheshire.

The father of three lived alone in a Manchester city centre flat during the week, as his family stayed in Nottinghamshire where he had been assistant chief constable from 1995 to 1998.

He was found dead on Tuesday amid reports that his wife had been told of another woman in his life.

An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned in Anglesey on Thursday so his body could be released for the funeral service.

Speaking for the first time over the weekend, his widow, Carolyn (47), described her husband, the top officer of Britain’s third largest force, as a “loving and caring father and husband”.

The inquest confirmed that he had been drinking before he was found dead.

He was over the legal drink–drive limit with 105 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in his system. The legal limit is 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres.

Date article online: 18/03/2008