A senior police officer told a court he expected allegedly cruel training methods of police dogs to stop once an internal investigation had been launched.

Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard that Chief Inspector Ian Learmonth was appointed to investigate allegations of training methods at the Sandon Dog Unit on October 24, 1997.

Chief Insp Learmonth said he was shocked to hear police dog Acer had died on November 20.

He said he assumed "commonsense would kick in" at the stage when he was appointed to start the investigation.

"I certainly expected this alleged training method to stop."

The court has already heard that Acer died of a ruptured liver and internal bleeding after his handler PC Mark Needham said he was told to hang him from a fence and kick him repeatedly.

Insp Graham Curtis, 43, Sgt Andrew White, 37, and instructors PC Kenneth Boorman, 45, and PC Stephen Hopkins, 42, all deny charges under the 1911 Protection of Animals Act.

The charges relate to the alleged ill-treatment of five police dogs between September and November last year.

The trial continues.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.