MARK SHIELDS, the deputy police commissioner who headed the investigation into the March 18 death of Pakistan’s cricket coach Bob Woolmer, has rejected the call from a colleague senior officer for him to resign.

The call from Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, the controversial former head of the now disbanded Crime Management Unit, was made last week in a CVM Television interview in the face of the impending announcement by investigators that Woolmer was not murdered as first announced by the police, but died of natural causes.

Adams told his television interviewer that Shields, a former Scotland Yard detective, had botched the Woolmer investigation and had brought the reputation of the police force into disrepute.

The tiff between the two senior policemen precedes a police press conference tomorrow to reveal the findings of tests on Woolmer’s body and the outcome of the police investigation.

Shields, who is defending the route taken by the team under his command, told the Observer yesterday that Adams was in no position to criticise.

“The question people should ask is what was SSP Adams’ motivation, and what merit should one give to the opinion of a police officer who has been at the centre of so many police operations involving the use of firearms, including the incidents at Tivoli Gardens and Braeton?” Shields asked during an interview with the Observer.

Instead, Shields said Adams was the one who should tender his resignation as his style of policing was archaic.

“I think that when Mr Adams talks about others bringing the force into disrepute he should take a close look at his own track record and justify why he himself has not chosen to resign,” Shields said.

Shields, however, refused to reply to queries about rumours of a rift in the constabulary. Reports reaching the Observer are that some members of the force want to see the back of Shields, while others are pleased with the ‘first-world’ approach to local policing both Shields and Scotsman, Assistant Commissioner Les Green, have brought to a police force.

Shields has come under fire since reports surfaced that Woolmer died of natural causes and was not strangled as had been previously announced. He has been accused of hogging the limelight and seeking to get maximum media spotlight out of the Woolmer affair.

Local pathologist Dr Ere Seshaiah, after performing an autopsy on Woolmer’s body, ruled that the cricket coach had met his demise as a result of asphyxiation due to manual strangulation. Seshaiah said Woolmer’s hyoid bone appeared broken.

Despite the pressure on Shields in the Woolmer issue, one senior policeman, who asked not to be named, praised the crime chief for what he said his professionalism in handling the Woolmer case.

“It was Mr Shields who requested that the bone be removed before the body was shipped to South Africa, and sought the opinions of three well-qualified pathologists overseas to get additional opinions so we could be absolutely sure. It was professional work on his part,” the officer told the Observer last week.

Tomorrow, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas is expected to reveal the findings of the three pathologists – doctors Michael Pollanen of Ontario, Canada; Lorna Martin of South Africa and Nat Carey of Britain – all of whom have allegedly refuted Dr Seshaiah findings that Woolmer was strangled.

Seshaiah has so far remained silent in the face of criticism of his work.