A FORMER senior North Yorkshire detective has won a near seven-year battle to clear his name of five internal disciplinary charges.

But Colin Hallinan, who was a Detective Chief Inspector at Harrogate Police Station when he was suspended in December 1994, has described being cleared as "a hollow victory".

He has alleged "certain individuals" were determined their investigations into him would stick, as "once they have taken the decision to suspend a senior officer they will go to any lengths to justify it".

This, he claims, led to a sexual discrimination case in which he was wrongly portrayed by the media as being investigated for sexual harassment.

Father-of-two Mr Hallinan who left the force on health grounds a year ago after 24 years' service received the Home Secretary's decision to find him "wholly innocent of the (disciplinary) charges appealed against" earlier this month.

After being found guilty in June 1996 of five of the eight charges brought against him, Mr Hallinan, now 46, appealed immediately. He was fined 13 days' pay and kept his position as a DCI.

The charges, he said, stemmed from allegations made by a junior officer whom Mr Hallinan had himself disciplined.

The five charges he was found guilty of were:

Two charges relating to him telling another officer he had looked at him "like a piece of s*** on his shoe".

That he had entered an office and stared at a junior officer.

That he had made an inappropriate comment while off-duty.

That he failed to take action over an initiation ceremony, in which he was not involved.

But while he was suspended, a sexual discrimination case was brought against the force by a female detective.

The case, which was adjourned until after Mr Hallinan's disciplinary hearing and was eventually settled out of court, named Mr Hallinan and several other officers.

Though there was no suggestion of sexual harassment within the writ, stories to the contrary appeared in the media.

Mr Hallinan said: "I don't blame the media entirely for that. Certain people led them to believe there was harassment involved, when there had never been any suggestion of that whatsoever."

After eventually returning to work on non-operational duties in September 1996, Mr Hallinan was required to resign from the force two years later after being charged with - and eventually convicted of - a number of motoring offences.

He admitted driving a car without proper registration plates, excise licence or MOT, and the headlights positioned for driving on the right hand side of the road .

He was charged, pleaded guilty and fined £200 but was also required to leave the force.

He was reinstated after appealing to the Home Secretary, but was demoted to Inspector.

He added: "I couldn't go back after that. I was suffering severe stress and depression. There was just no way I could have coped with walking into another police station, and the force medical officer deemed me unfit to work.

"It is a real shame it has all come to this. Yes, I've been cleared. But it is nothing more than a hollow victory for me."

But North Yorkshire's Chief Constable David Kenworthy hit back, saying: "Mr Hallinan's claim regarding the force's determination to justify the suspension of a senior officer is twaddle.

"His claim that the force were involved in misleading the media over the discrimination case is also totally untrue.

"Mr Hallinan no longer works for North Yorkshire Police. I will say that much water has flowed under the bridge since that era and the force has changed immeasurably."

Mr Kenworthy gave as an example of the change the British Diversity Awards, in which the force have been nominated in two categories.

"These awards are to recognise individuals or organisations for demonstrating a greater degree of commitment to realising the ideal of genuine equal opportunities for everyone," he added.

Updated: 10:48 Monday, October 29, 2001