Fury over payout for child porn ex-fire chief Frank Sheehan
FIREFIGHTERS reacted with fury today after news that disgraced former West Midlands Fire Service chief Frank Sheehan, who was caught looking at child porn, had received a £500,000 payout.
Sheehan negotiated the lump sum from his £6,000-a-month pension pot after he was allowed to retire, aged 55, the day after a police swooped and seized his laptop.
He was arrested last November but the Crown Prosecution Service later announced it was not in the public interest to charge Sheehan.
Instead he accepted a police caution and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for two years.
Sheehan, who had been head of the fire service, faced no disciplinary action and the incident didn’t affected his pension package which is handed out by the West Midlands Fire Authority.
The authority refused to confirm the exact amount given to Sheehan, but union members have been told he will get a lump sum of at least £500,000, plus £6,000 a month for the rest of his life.
Some of that money will have been contributed by Sheehan over his 34-year career, but at least 90 per cent of the £500,000 comes from the taxpayer.
Sheehan, who earned £150,000 a year and lives in a £400,000 house in Sutton Coldfield with wife Linda and his 14-year-old daughter, refused to discuss the matter.
