A WOMAN was appointed to the second most important policing job in Northern Ireland for the first time today.
Assistant chief constable Judith Gillespie has been promoted to be the new deputy chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The appointment of the 46-year-old, currently in charge of the PSNI rural region, to the £149,463-a-year (€172,224) post was made by the policing board.
Ms Gillespie has been a police officer in Northern Ireland for 27 years and was the first female officer from the PSNI to attend the Strategic Command Course at Bramshill in 2003. She returned to Belfast as an Acting Assistant Chief Constable and was confirmed in the post by the board the following year.
She has both a BA honours and a Masters in Criminology from Cambridge University.
Her appointment marks the start of big changes at the helm of the PSNI. The chief constable, Sir Hugh Orde, has announced his retirement from the top job and is expected to leave in September.