Brunstrom makes retirement U-turn

Changed his mind? Mr Brunstrom now says he will not leave "any time soon"

The chief constable of North Wales Police has back-tracked on his own announcement that he expected to retire by Christmas 2009.

In an interview with BBC Radio Wales earlier in August, Richard Brunstrom said he expected to "retire and disappear" by the end of next year.

But in an interview with North Wales Weekly News, he said the person who announced his departure was "mistaken".

North Wales Police said Mr Brunstrom had not announced his retirement.

I have a contract which goes until Christmas next year and I suspect by that time I will simply retire and simply disappear Richard Brunstrom, 11 August, 2008

Speaking on BBC Wales' Value Judgements earlier this month, Mr Brunstrom said: "I have got to stop - everybody has got to stop."

He added: "My wife and I intend to retire, sell up, buy a boat and go sailing. That is while we are still young and fit enough to do so."

"I have a contract which goes until Christmas next year and I suspect by that time I will simply retire and simply disappear.

"You will not find me re-emerging as an aspiring politician or in any other field.

"I hope to be extremely quiet and hopefully a long way away, taking the sun on a coral atoll."

Reports of my demise are sadly exaggerated. It is not happening. I've got work to do Richard Brunstrom, 28 August, 2008

However, in an apparent change of heart, he has said: "I'm not retiring. I'm not doing a Tony Blair. If anyone has told you I am retiring, they are mistaken.

"Reports of my demise are sadly exaggerated. It is not happening. I've got work to do.

"I will retire one day - I will die one day - but not any time soon."

Last year, Mr Brunstrom was criticised for showing pictures of a decapitated biker at a private briefing without the family's permission.

He later admitted he had made a "stupid mistake" - but then partly blamed the media for reporting what he had done.

In December he reportedly broke into his own Colwyn Bay headquarters to test security, but it recently transpired he might simply have had a faulty key fob.

A North Wales Police spokesperson said: "The chief constable has not announced his retirement or given a date on which he intends to do so."

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