CLEVELAND Police's new Deputy Chief Constable Iain Spittal said today he is looking forward to helping write "a new chapter" for the force.

Mr Spittal is currently serving as Assistant Chief Constable in North Yorkshire Police and will take up his new post at the end of June.

His appointment was formally announced today (Tuesday, May 21), and Mr Spittal insisted he was “not here to sort out Cleveland Police” but be part of “a new team going forward.”

Cleveland Police’s previous Chief and Deputy Chief Constables, Sean Price and Derek Bonnard, were both sacked for gross misconduct.

Current Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer said she had spent the last 20 months establishing a new selection process and a new team at the top.

She said between 60 and 70 per cent of all staff in the top six ranks of the force were new appointments.

“Iain’s role is to be part of that new team,” she said. “We’ve chosen the best of the best of the best here.”

Mr Spittal, 46, who is married to a teacher and a father of two sons aged 18 and 14, said he had strong connections to Teesside having worked with officers from the force over many years.

He was in charge of last year’s North Yorkshire Police hunt for double murderer James Allen.

Mr Spittal also studied for a Masters degree in leadership and change at Teesside University.

The officer, born in Leeds but a long-time resident of North Yorkshire, said he had been a policeman since he was 19. He said he witnessed an assault as a teenager and was inspired to devote his life to law enforcement.

He said: “I’m not coming here to sort out Cleveland Police. The core of this police force should not be tainted with that…The controversy is about the past.

"We’re about going forward. There’s a new team, a new chapter, and that’s down the hard work the chief constable has done.”