A SCOTTISH chief constable has pled not guilty to a charge of careless driving.
Norma Graham, head of Fife Constabulary and Scotland’s first ever female chief constable, is accused of causing a head-on car crash that left her and the other driver injured.
Mrs Graham denies that on February 7 this year on the B922 Cluny to Kinglassie Road she drove her Audi without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road.
The 49-year-old, from Dalkeith, Midlothian, also denies that she failed to keep the vehicle under proper control and caused it to collide with a Renault Clio driven by Hannah Shedden.
Mrs Graham was not present at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court this morning for the third time the case has called.
A lawyer for the chief constable told the court her client “makes a plea of not guilty to all charges”.
Sheriff Richard McFarlane set a trial date for December 5 with an intermediate diet set for November 7.
It is thought this is the first time in Scottish legal history that a chief constable has been cited to appear in court as an accused person.
But she is due to retire later this month and so will no longer be a police officer when the case goes to trial.
Mrs Graham joined Lothian and Borders Police as a cadet in 1978 aged 16.
Her first job was as a beat officer in her home town of Musselburgh, East Lothian.
After a successful career as a detective, she was appointed assistant chief constable at Central Scotland Police in 2002, before becoming deputy chief constable with the Fife Force.
In July 2008 she became the country’s first female chief constable and the same year was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal.
In April this year, two months after the accident, she announced her decision to retire.
She said at the time: “It has been an absolute honour to serve the communities of Fife as chief constable for the last four years and a privilege to lead the dedicated and hardworking officers and police staff of Fife Constabulary who over the last seven years have been instrumental in almost halving crime in the Kingdom.”
