Firefighters reacted with fury today, after news that disgraced former West Midlands Fire Service chief Frank Sheehan, who was caught looking at child porn, had received a £500,000 payout. Sheehan negotiated the lump sum from his £6,000-a-month pension pot after he was allowed to retire, aged 55, the day after police swooped and seized his laptop. He was arrested last November, but the Crown Prosecution Service later announced it was not in the public interest to charge Sheehan. Instead he accepted a police caution, and was placed on the sex offenders' register for two years. Sheehan, who had been head of the fire service, faced no disciplinary action, and the incident didn't affected his pension package, which is handed out by the West Midlands Fire Authority. The authority refused to confirm the exact amount given to Sheehan, but union members have been told he will get a lump sum of at least £500,000, plus £6,000 a month for the rest of his life. Some of that money will have been contributed by Sheehan over his 34-year career, but at least 90 per cent of the £500,000 comes from the taxpayer. Sheehan, who earned £150,000 a year, and lives in a £400,000 house in Sutton Coldfield, with wife Linda, and his 14-year-old daughter, refused to discuss the matter. When the figures were put to him he said: "I'm not making any comment. No, no, no, go away." But Chris Downes, of the West Midlands Fire Brigades Union, said: "Members feel very let down, and angry that he has been allowed to receive his pension in full." And firefighters reacted with disgust to their disgraced ex-chief's pension pay day. They claim his generous pay-out is typical of the "them and us" culture in the brigade, where senior officers get preferential treatment to rank and file firefighters. One watch commander with 15 years in the job said: "In the past Sheehan has sacked people for much lesser offences, and they've had their pensions frozen until they're 65." A station commander, who retired last year, said he was incredulous when he heard how much his former boss was getting: "It's an absolute disgrace - if it was one of us we would have been treated differently and had to wait till he was 65 for his pension but he gets his straight away," he said. "Although he escaped with just a caution it's still a recordable criminal matter and that should affect his pension. This has all been done politically be-cause he's such a high profile figure." | 
