Police chief spoke of suicide seven years ago, says ex-lover

Tracy Clarke said the Greater Manchester Chief Constable - whose body was found on Mount Snowdon last week - telephoned her to say he was sitting in his car with hundreds of paracetamols.

She said that he suffered bouts of depression and had admitted to having suicidal thoughts, and she always feared he would kill himself rather than be exposed as a serial adulterer.

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Police have confirmed they are investigating the private life of the 50-year-old married father of three, to check if his work could have been affected by his series of

affairs. Mrs Clarke said she met Mr Todd in 1998 when he was deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, where she worked for the internal complaints department. She was 28 at the time.

She told the Sunday Times that she knew he was married and had a reputation as a ladies' man, but they began an "intimate relationship".

He confided in her about his depression and his suicidal thoughts, she said, but refused to get professional help.

"He would not entertain it. I said it was private and confidential, but he said he would see himself as weak."

She said she reminded him about his children when he spoke of suicide, but claimed he replied: 'You don't think of that when you are in the grip of depression.'

Mrs Clarke said she ended the affair when she faced a corruption investigation in 1999 but they kept in contact after she was cleared.

In 2001 she took the Met to an employment tribunal over claims that she had been overlooked for promotion-after officials found out about the affair.

She said Mr Todd telephoned her, terrified she would name him in the case, and told her he was in his car with paracetamol tablets.

When she asked how many, he replied he had "two boxes of 500 but one of them wasn't full".

Mrs Clarke, who now lives abroad, said she was not surprised to learn of his apparent suicide.

"I've been expecting it ever since that call. He really couldn't see that he could have weathered the storm and the thought of an expose; would have crucified him."

Mrs Clarke is the sixth named woman to have been involved with Mr Todd, whose widow Carolyn spoke movingly about their 27-year marriage last week.

Sources at Greater Manchester Police said officers feared his behaviour could tarnish the force's reputation or expose him to the risk of blackmail.