Police officers taken off child interview case

TWO Lothian and Borders Police officers have been removed from child interviewing duties after a sheriff criticised the way a case of alleged child abuse was handled.

Sheriff Neil Morrison said the work of Detective Constable Colin Johnston and PC Susan Purnell in the case of a young girl had been "damaging".

He also recommended city council social worker Tracey Black should be relieved of all child protection duties until she had been retrained after she had asked inappropriate and leading questions and put forward records of interviews he considered "disingenuous".

The city council said it had removed Ms Black from the case, but retained full confidence in her. The case concerned a man denied unsupervised access to his daughter after his wife falsely claimed he had touched the girl intimately.

Lothian and Borders Police said they were implementing "all necessary improvements".