The senior officer who headed the Sarah Payne case and approved the destruction of police dog Bruce is being promoted.

Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Yeo is to become Acting Deputy Chief Constable of Sussex Police at the end of this month.

He will temporarily fill the vacancy created by Deputy Chief Constable Maria Wallis, who takes up her new job as Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall at the end of this month.

Interviews for the Sussex deputy's job are expected to take place in August.

Mr Yeo hit the headlines when he described Bruce as "a piece of equipment".

The German shepherd was destroyed after he bit off a teenager's ear after a street fracas.

The decision to destroy Bruce caused an uproar and hundreds of Argus readers wrote letters of protest.

Mr Yeo stood by his decision but apologised for causing people distress.

It is understood Mr Yeo, a 48-year-old Cambridge graduate, is one of those applying for the deputy's job.

He served with the Metropolitan Police and transferred to Sussex in 1991.

Mr Yeo became assistant chief in 1997 and was in charge of policing the Labour Party conference in Brighton last year.

He was in overall charge of the Sarah Payne kidnap and murder inquiry, which led to the jailing for life of Roy Whiting.