"It’s certainly crude, coarse ... it’s not the language I want my mother to read about, my daughters, and there’s one person to blame about that. "I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have gotten down that low. "I did drop the ball with this thing." Mr Guerin said he had failed Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, but hoped he would keep his position as the head of the Professional Standards Command. Asked how he would treat an officer who behaved in a similar way, he said they would be admonished but not sacked.

"Just because someone is under investigation, doesn't mean they're suspended or stood down, it just depends on the risk," he later told The Age. "The approach we take today with officers ... you look at the risk. We suspend them as a last resort. It's a big deal to suspend someone at any level. Take them out of the workplace, take them out of their support circle." Asked if he should be held to a higher standard because of his position, Mr Guerin said it was a matter for IBAC. After Mr Guerin's frank admissions, a spokeswoman for Mr Ashton said the commissioner would wait for IBAC's advice. Assistant Commissioner Brett Guerin. Credit:Wayne Taylor

The comments Mr Guerin made the disparaging remarks about former chief commissioner Christine Nixon and former Police Association boss Paul Mullett on the website of conservative commentator and Sydney shock-jock Michael Smith. The comments came after Mr Mullett lost a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Ms Nixon in which he claimed she had plotted to oust him from his role. "She [Ms Nixon] bent the Mulletmeister [Mullett] over and slipped a rather large schlong up his date courtesy of the Supreme Court's decision this morning," he wrote on August 31, 2016. "More importantly, though, how many firefighters knew their union was funding this capricious and doomed-from-the-start private legal escapade with their subscriptions?

"The Police Association thanks them for funding their former secretary, as they refused to do so. Fireman [sic] are good at putting out fires. But deep thinking, however, is a bit beyond them." Former police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon. Credit:Penny Stephens Two days later, Mr Guerin made more comments about Mr Mullett: "I'm afraid he's flopping all over the boat's floor now, Taz. "Master fisherwoman Chrissy just gutted him and stuffed a nice prawn up his filleted asshole. "No doing the Rex Hunt for this Rex Hunt. He's gawn."

'I thought I would defend her' Mr Guerin told The Age he made the comments to defend Ms Nixon and Victoria Police, and was entitled to use a pseudonym to do so. "I worked with Christine Nixon quite closely for a period of time ... so I thought I would jump in and defend her," he said. "And I did it in a way that in hindsight I shouldn’t have, I shouldn’t have used that type of language. "I don’t want to overstate my fame, but if I put a post in relation to something to do with the law or a way a case was disposed of, it becomes a story, 'oh Victoria Police are saying that'.

"I think I’m entitled to engaging in reasonable public comment as a private citizen using a pseudonym." He said his son might have created the account for him, and could not remember if he had used a police computer when posting the comments. Victoria Police said it was not aware of the comments regarding Mr Mullet and Ms Nixon until The Age raised the matter on Wednesday. Police integrity In 2007, the Office of Police Integrity investigated a union delegate, believed to be a serving officer, who allegedly used the police's email system under the name "Kit Walker" to defame a former union president.

Mr Ashton was head of the OPI at the time. "Police in both their public and private lives shall conduct themselves in a way that instills public confidence in their integrity and engenders respect," the OPI said. The Professional Standards Command's role is to investigate complaints against police and promote high ethical standards within the force. Mr Mullett said Mr Guerin should be suspended in light of revelation. "Why hasn’t the Chief Commissioner suspended him?" Mr Mullet said.

"It would be in the community and the members’ interest that he be suspended, because on a daily basis he’s delegated with the power to make significant decisions against members of the police force for all forms of alleged behaviour, including this type of alleged behaviour." Mr Mullett told The Age he was considering his legal position. Former Police Association secretary Paul Mullett. Credit:Craig Abraham Under the nom de plume, Mr Guerin also criticised former police chief commissioner Kel Glare in several Facebook posts last year. The posts appeared on the Facebook page of the Community Advocacy Alliance, a group of retired executive police officers chaired by Mr Glare.

In a post on May 8, Mr Guerin took aim at Mr Glare, accusing him of being "out of date" and questioning his performance as chief commissioner. Loading "When Kel Glare was appointed Chief Commissioner, Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, the internet was still ten years away and mobile phones were yet to appear. Victoria Police shot and killed more people, at a rate more than all others [sic] police forces combined, than in any other time in Australian history," Mr Guerin wrote. The Facebook page in the name Vernon Demerest has been deleted. "It's a tool I don't want to use anymore," Mr Guerin said.