Former Metropolitan police chief John Yates hired by Bahrain to reform force

 

Former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, John Yates, said he is looking forward to his new challenge Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

Former Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates, who resigned from his post in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, has been appointed by Bahrain to oversee reform of its police force after reports of human rights abuse.

Yates has been asked to overhaul Bahrain's police service to ensure it meets international human rights standards, after a report found evidence that excessive force and torture were used during the Pearl revolution this year.

Yates told the Daily Telegraph he has agreed to take on the duty alongside John Timoney, a former head of Miami police. Bahrain's ministry of interior notes that while in the Miami job, Timoney "succeeded amongst other things in reducing crime and implementing proper practices for the use of force".

Yates quit his job at the Met in July amid questions over his links with an executive at Rupert Murdoch's media empire in the phone-hacking scandal, but was cleared of any misconduct by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

He said he would draw on his experience in the Met and from working on community policing programmes with Jamaican police. "Bahrain's police have some big challenges ahead, not dissimilar to those the UK itself faced only a couple of decades ago, but I have been impressed that the king is doing the right thing by pressing on with big reforms," he said.

"This is a big challenge which I will undertake with a great reforming police officer like John Timoney."He added: "I look forward to speaking to Bahrain's chief police officers, going out with them on the streets to see the challenges they face, seeing what structures they have in place and helping them to deal better with public order, arrest and detention issues."