A senior police officer who had been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting wine from Marks and Spencer was found dead today after apparently committing suicide.

Jim Torbet, 54, was suspended from duty by Sussex police along with Chief Inspector Sharon Rowe after the pair were stopped leaving the store in Shoreham, West Sussex, in September.

The two high-ranking officers were released on bail pending further investigation into the alleged theft of wine.

His body was discovered in the early hours of the morning at his detached home in Peacehaven, East Sussex.

A police spokeswoman said that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. Mr Torbet’s apparent suicide comes five years after his teenage daughter was murdered by her former boyfriend.

The headteacher of a school where Mr Torbet was the vice-chairman of governors condemned “procrastination” by those investigating his alleged shoplifting, which he claimed created an “intolerable situation for a very decent man”,

Mike Conn, principal of Bexhill High School, said that he would write to Martin Richards, chief constable of Sussex Police: “I would like to know why the allegation, which was relatively minor, took so long to investigate and secondly how it came into the public domain before he was even charged.

“Jim was a man of the utmost integrity and I don’t understand how in a country which prides itself on people being innocent until proven guilty, a man’s details were allowed to be released without him being charged.

“I am so incensed by this. The thought of him stealing a bottle of wine just doesn’t seem possible. If the police were going to charge him, why has it taken so long?

“This was a simple, straightforward shoplifting matter that is normally dealt with by way of a fixed penalty fine or in court relatively quickly.”

Mr Torbet joined Sussex police in 1980 and received five commendations before he and CI Rowe, district commander of Worthing, West Sussex, were stopped at the seaside M&S store late last month.

Security guards reportedly stopped the pair after they were caught on CCTV allegedly attempting to shoplift bottles of wine from the shop, in Shoreham’s Holmbush Centre.

Mr Torbet’s death was announced to colleagues by Chief Constable Richards, who described him as a “popular and valued member of our team”.

“Jim had given many years of loyal and dedicated service to Sussex Police, and in recent years has served as Detective Chief Inspector in the Professional Standards Department,” he added.

A tribute to the DCI posted on the website of a local newspaper read: “You were never too stuck up to have a laugh with us at the bottom of the ladder. Gone but never forgotten — a top bloke.”

In 2003 Mr Torbet’s 19-year-old daughter Rae was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend Dellwyn James, after the forklift truck driver lay in wait for her at her flat in Bexhill, East Sussex.

Mr Torbet broke down in tears as he saw James jailed for life at Lewes Crown Court later that year and outside court expressed his wish that James would be “third time lucky” with any further suicide bid.

Ms Rowe, 44, is a trained English teacher who joined the police in 1986 and twelve years later became the first woman to reach the rank of inspector in Brighton and Hove.

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