DEVON and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez should be “considering her position” after she incorrectly told a crime panel that the remains of multiple bodies had been found in a Cornish woodland, says its chair.

Cllr Sally Haydon (Labour, St Budeaux), who heads the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel, said the blunder was a “yet another serious mistake” by the commissioner, who came under criticism last year for going against the wishes of the panel and appointing a deputy, who later resigned due to “personal circumstances”.

Alison Hernandez told a panel meeting that “dead bodies” had been found in woodland at Sticker in Cornwall.

She said that police were “trying to establish how many” bodies may be at the site, which is at the centre of a murder investigation.

She later apologised after leading investigators said the woodland search only involved the human remains of a single person, not several.

Detective Superintendent Jon Bancroft said: “We currently have three separate murder investigations being conducted in the Cornwall area.

“I have oversight of all of these investigations at this time, and can confirm they are being carried out independently of each other and are not believed to be linked.

“I can categorically state that we have recovered remains believed to be those of Daniel Coleman only from an area of woodland in Sticker. No other remains have been located at this scene to date.”

Cllr Haydon, who is also Plymouth City Council’s cabinet member for community safety, said: “It’s extremely disappointing that the commissioner shared such seriously flawed information at the panel.

“It’s a serious mistake which not only created a period of real worry for people but is deeply unhelpful when we need to do all we can to help restore confidence in our police force.

“It’s extremely worrying that Ms Hernandez made such a serious public statement without the full facts on what was clearly an operational matter, particularly when she has repeatedly told the committee that she does not get operational.”

At the meeting Ms Hernandez also failed to answer questions regarding a “golden handshake” deal struck with chief constable Will Kerr – who she picked for the role – before his recently-announced retirement. She told panel members they could find the information in the statement of accounts published next year.

It follows an unsettled two-year-period within the Devon and Cornwall Police which saw its substantive chief constable suspended and later its acting chief constable.

It is the role of a police and crime commissioner to hold the chief constable to account for the police’s performance and be the public’s voice in policing.

Last year Ms Hernandez appointed a deputy commissioner Mark Kingscote, who later resigned after just five months in post, despite being recommended not to by the panel because they felt he didn’t have enough experience.

Cllr Hayden continued: “All of this, coupled with the apparent chaos at senior levels of the force and the interventions required following inspection and the continued need to improve means there are very serious concerns over whether she is capable of continuing in this role and I believe she should be considering her position.”

During the panel meeting Councillor Julian German, who represents the Roseland on Cornwall Council, quizzed Ms Hernandez about how the investigation was progressing.

He said: “Since your written update, the force has requested mutual aid and it’s been granted. Before mutual aid was granted the whole of the front line of the force was reorganised to cope with the pressure it is experiencing primarily due to incidents in Cornwall.

“So would you like to update the panel on that, why the mutual aid was requested and granted and what’s the ongoing situation?”

Ms Hernandez replied: “Some of the elements of that operation I can’t speak about but some of the things are very obvious. As you know there is a large crime scene that has been identified in Cornwall that is requiring a lot of effort to even scene guard the area.

“The level of expertise, some of the mutual aid we’ve brought in, is expertise in specific types of investigations that we didn’t have. The National Crime Agency is supporting the organisation at the moment.

She said: “I know there’s been some information in the media. We’ve got a huge forensic tent down there. Lots of forensics officers, obviously we’ve found dead bodies in that wood. We’re just trying to establish how many there may be at this point in time and whether we are aware of who they are or what might have happened to them.”

She later apologised, saying: “The police have operational primacy over these matters. Any investigation will unfold rapidly and I was not in possession of all the facts at that time.”