Q. Your father, James, and mother, Lillie, were in the RAF, and as a boy you travelled extensively as they moved to different postings.
A. We lived around the UK and, for three years, lived in Singapore where I’d a dingo, an Australian dog, and a spider monkey called Suki. When I was nine, my dad was sent back to Bishopscourt in Northern Ireland and we lived in Newcastle. From there we moved to Wales.
Q. You’ve never spoken publicly about getting a juvenile caution... what happened?
A. I don’t know whether I should be quoted about this... okay, I got into a bit of trouble with the law in Wales. I was 14 and continually being provoked and bullied by young people on my way home from school about what was happening in Belfast. That led to a confrontation. I was foolish to respond. I received a juvenile caution and part of the condition of that was that I’d leave Wales and stay with my aunt in east Belfast. Later, working in law enforcement, I’d tell the story and joke: “So you take a child with some aggressive tendencies and anger issues and send them back to 1970s Belfast.” Mum, dad and my sister, Dawn, moved back six months later when they got their transfers sorted out. We settled in a council estate in Bangor, where I was very happy. I went to Bangor Boys’ Secondary School. As a young police inspector handing out my first juvenile caution, I told the culprit: “It’s not what you’ve done that matters, it’s what you do next”. Everyone is entitled to make mistakes and everyone is entitled to a second chance.