Police complaint

A police inspector has been sacked after allegedly making a teenager strip below the waist while he was being cautioned about his behaviour.

Gerry Hutchings, 47, has also been arrested and released on bail after the 16-year-old made an official police complaint.

The youth was being cautioned for theft of a bicycle when the alleged incident, which is not believed to be "sexually motivated", took place.

The senior officer was in charge of policing the New Forest area of Hampshire and has been a policeman for 27 years, working across the county.

Police complaint hearing

But on August 13, Chief Constable Paul Kernaghan summoned Mr Hutchings to an internal disciplinary hearing and he was sacked, a police spokeswoman confirmed.

She added "Hampshire Constabulary can confirm that a uniformed police inspector based at Lyndhurst was arrested, bailed and suspended on Wednesday, July 11.

"This case has been voluntarily referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission."

Ifti Manzoor, an Associate at law firm Irwin Mitchell specialises in police complaints. He commented: This demonstrates that the police are not above the law. There appears to be no justification for the strip search and a Police Inspector behaving in this way clearly sets a bad example to more junior officers.