Cop That!

”STROP COP.’ That’s how the Mirror chooses to dub Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens after his latest outburst.

‘Anyone else want a piece of me?’

The 6ft 3ins copper is known to have what the paper coyly calls ‘a volatile temper’ and, when he returned from a terrorism briefing with the Home Secretary, he decided that the two armed officers guarding New Scotland Yard were standing too far from the entrance.

He regarded this as a severe security lapse and tore them off a strip in public.

This was too much for one bobby, who felt he had been unfairly criticised and turned away, only to be grabbed by Sir John for a further blast of the hairdryer.

An ‘insider’ says that the Commissioner denies he touched either of these officers, ‘but it is fair to say that they felt the rough side of his tongue’.

Sir John insists that he made no apology to the men, and believes he was right to tick them off. The men later said that they had been told that Sir John was under a lot of stress.

As presumably are the two hapless coppers themselves. Not to mention, trauma – although neither officer has gone sick, or retired early on full pension. Not yet, anyway.’

Posted: 6th, April 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink