Senior police officer cleared of assaulting wife

A senior police officer has been cleared of assaulting his wife during an argument in their home.

Ch Supt Pat Campbell, 54, was said to have argued with his wife Leonne, 54, in Lanarkshire.

He went on trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court where he denied a charge of assault and a second of acting in a threatening or abusive manner in April this year.

Sheriff Joseph Hughes found both charges faced by Campbell to be not proven.

Mrs Campbell, a manager of a medical practice, told the court she had been out drinking at a party and had ignored a string of calls from her husband.

She said their marriage had been going through a "troubled time" and was at "breaking point" and that an argument had broken out when they were lying beside each other in bed.

She said she later dialled 101 in a "hasty move" and did not consider the consequences for her husband who was arrested and held in custody.

In his evidence, Ch Supt Campbell said he was left "startled and taken aback" when his wife reported him for assaulting her.

The court heard Mrs Campbell had given a statement to police over the claims while under the influence, but then made a second statement when she was sober which retracted most of what she had previously told officers.

In her initial statement Mrs Campbell claimed her husband had threatened to kill himself when she contacted 101 and that she had been punched on the arm.

But in her second statement, she told officers: "In 30 years of marriage I have never seen him lift his hands to anybody.

"I don't remember much of the call to the police but know now that I overreacted to the entire situation."

Finding the charges not proven, Sheriff Hughes said: "Looking at the oral evidence of both the accused and his wife and further assessing the totality of the evidence, I do have a reasonable doubt as to whether the incidents alleged took place."

Ch Supt Campbell has been in policing for three decades and once headed the organised crime and counter terrorism unit.

He led the investigation into the death of Sheku Bayoh while in police custody in 2015.