document which claims that no senior officer is capable of filling the vacant Commissioner's post.

At a Press conference yesterday Mr. Bissell described the leak as "outrageous''.

The document -- a secret appendix to the Grundy Report -- concluded that none of the force's senior officers were competent or qualified for the role of Commissioner.

The embarrassing contents of the appendix were made public last week after being leaked to The Mid Ocean News.

But Mr. Bissell said: "If it is secret, how did they obtain possession of it in the first place? "It could only have been in the legal possession of a very select group of individuals and has never been seen by any member presently in the Police Service.

"The service has always had a good reputation in the international police community and this is unlikely to change because of the loss of one individual, even of high rank.

"Additionally you may wish to ask yourselves who could benefit from the denigration of the ability of senior Police officers concerned and for what purpose.

"We have all seen attempts to re-write our history by innuendo spread about by certain individuals concerning former Commissioners of Police. Again you may wish to question of those involved, especially when you look at articles written by those same individuals in support of those Commissioners.

"Those who have presently served, in whatever rank, have been generally held in high esteem and to now attack their ability when some cannot defend themselves is simply outrageous.'' The findings of the report were leaked to The Mid Ocean News and printed last Friday.

Mr.Grundy -- Britain's Inspector General of Dependent Territories Police Forces -- presented his findings to the Governor and Government earlier this year after inspecting the Island's Police Service for the second time.