Expert says he's '110 per cent sure' Northamptonshire Chief Constable's medal was crude 'copy'

Chris Hayward, a long-standing MOD medallist, described the results of an examination of what was purported to be Mr Adderley’s South Atlantic medal but the expert confirmed it was a replica.

He said: “It was a copy medal. 110 per cent sure.”

Defending Mr Adderley, Matthew Holdcroft, disputed that the medal sent to Mr Hayward had been the one seen being worn by Mr Adderley on his left breast.

Military protocol and practice by the Royal British Legion sees veterans awarded medals wearing them on the left – relatives customarily wear loved ones’ medals on the right.

The hearing was told as well as the medal being the wrong weight, crudely engraved, a different colour, having the wrong font and not being made of a copper/nickel alloy, the ‘Adderley’ medal didn’t ‘swivel’ – a rotating mechanism attaching the medal to the ribbon.

But the medal had been destroyed by the MOD, their usual protocol for medals without a service number – although the content of any engraving was disputed.

Mr Adderley’s defence team said that it was ‘inference’ that he had served in the Falklands in the Royal Navy.

Mr Holdcroft said it was first reported after an interview with the Manchester Evening News in August 2011 while he was a Chief Superintendent in the Greater Manchester Police. A ‘fact’ that had been repeated by other newspapers over the years and his own communication teams.

The narrative that Mr Adderley had served in the Royal Navy for ten years had not been corrected since its first publication in 2011.

Dismissing images showing Mr Adderley wearing the medals as if he had been awarded them, Mr Holdcroft sought to explain why the erroneous information had continued to be repeated.

Explaining why the Chief Constable had never corrected press releases prepared on his behalf by colleagues, that repeated his ‘10-year’ naval career, his defence said that it was because he was ‘sloppy’.

Mr Holdcroft said: “He has been culpable of being sloppy and not checking things through. Somethings that were written down were not checked.”

But Mr John Beggs KC dismissed the evidence shown in newspaper articles and police press releases, saying Mr Adderley should have been ‘even more scrupulous’ than a member of the public especially when filling in application forms for his succession of police jobs.

Mr Adderley stated on his CV and signed a vetting questionnaire that the information he provided was true saying he was a Commander ‘with a capital ‘C’.

Mr Beggs said: “A CV is a personal document. Out of his own mouth he condemns himself. ‘I have taken command in active service’ – it’s just a straight forward lie. If you are prepared to tell a bare-faced lie in the first line of an application you can’t take anything (he says) on face value.”

Sitting next to Mr Holdcroft, Mr Adderley wearing his full uniform – with no medals – intermittently shook his head as evidence was produced.

In a dramatic moment after yet another pause in the hearing, it was announced to the panel that Mr Adderley would not be giving evidence after taking legal advice in relation to pending criminal proceedings against the Chief Constable.

Instead of cross-examining Mr Adderley as anticipated, Mr Beggs asked for time to prepare his closing arguments and the hearing was adjourned until tomorrow morning (Thursday).