MANY readers will find it surprising that after being found guilty of actions likely to bring Devon and Cornwall police into disrepute, an officer is fined just three days wages.

What will particularly stick in the craw on this occasion is the fact that the gentleman in question has been suspended on full pay for a year.

No doubt Chief Constable Stephen Otter and his senior team have rules and regulations which they abide by.

And one would expect the panel that made the final decision used all of the powers at their disposal.

However, that does not make the final outcome any the less surpising as far as this newspaper is concerned.

Let's look at the evidence for a moment.

Above a clip showing a youth pulling a knife on an officer in a Devon custody suite, before being restrained, the officer wrote: "look at this stupid c***, hope he got a good f***** shoeing in the cells."

Then, perhaps as a warning to fellow officers, he added: "And remember, let's not be so soft on these c***s out there."

Disgusting language, a promotion of violence and all this from someone we expect to uphold law and order.

But what makes this even worse is that it was posted on one of the world's most popular social networking sites and was, therefore, very much in the public domain.

All of this flies in the face of the force's stated aim which, we will remind Mr Otter and his senior team, states it is working ..."to bring about safer communities; reduce disorder, crime and the fear of crime; and contribute to the delivery of justice in a way which secures and maintains public confidence."

We would argue a certain amount of public confidence will have been lost as a result of this sorry episode.