IT was a nerve-wracking situation...

Just three years into his career as a police officer, PC Andy Slattery was facing one of his toughest professional challenges. He’d been sent to a road-bridge that spanned the River Greta, near Keswick.

Perched precariously on the bridge’s outer ledge was a young man, clearly in distress and threatening to jump.

A careless word could easily have led to tragedy. For more than three hours, the young police officer listened as the 25-year-old stranger talked, his life hanging in the balance. Calmly, patiently, and with infinite care, PC Slattery persuaded him to choose life.

Fast forward 25 years, and that same policeman has just been confirmed as Cumbria Constabulary’s third most senior officer.

Slattery is thrilled to be the county’s permanent Assistant Chief Constable - a role he has filled provisionally since March last year. Though it was the 1994 bridge drama that first got him noticed, it was with his work as a detective that Slattery made his mark.

A former Keswick School pupil, who did science A-levels, he initially considered taking a degree in marine biology - but then opted for sociology at Lancaster University. “It was different, and included criminology elements,” says Slattery.

His other passion was the fells.

It prompted Slattery to join Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, allowing him over 13 years to join hundreds of emergency call-outs and rescues.

After graduating, he worked in outdoor equipment shops, and outdoor education. But it was his work in mountain rescue that steered him towards a police career.

“I got a lot of satisfaction out of the public service aspect of mountain rescue - helping people in need,” he says. It was that character trait, seen so clearly on that bridge near Keswick, that prompted him to join the police.” But the force’s “militaristic” training was tough, he admits.

“Being told when to go to bed, how to iron your trousers - it was a culture shock,” he says. “But I persevered.” Slattery is at ease. a plain-speaking pragmatist, who has an understated passion for his home county and his professional life. Focus and determination seem central to his character.

A lifelong fell-runner, regularly competing in “ultra” distance races, he is in the Bob Graham Club, whose members run the gruelling Bob Graham Round: 66 miles across 42 of the Lake District’s highest peaks within 24 hours.

Even more impressively, he has three times done the “Lakeland 100” - an even more challenging 105 mile route that demands around 25 hours of non-stop running.

Incredibly, in 2015, while just 20 miles into that race, he broke a bone in his foot - yet he struggled on painfully through the remaining 80 miles. “The longest route I’ve run was the Mont-Blanc Run [in the Alps], which was nearly 106 miles, over 39 hours,” he recalls.

Why do it?

“When I’m running the fells,” he explains, “it’s a chance to process some of the difficult challenges you can face in the workplace; a chance to deal with the stresses and strains of my work.”

It’s the perfect cue to discuss his career.

Slattery, 51, joined Cumbria Constabulary in 1991, initially doing shifts in Workington, often in difficult and deprived areas. “Most of the community was positive for us, but there were difficult areas.

“I spent time pursuing stolen cars, which were then dumped and set on fire. There was some large scale disorder on estates, and on occasions our vans were stoned.”

But it was not the excitement of the front line that most engaged him; it was the intellectual challenge of detective work. As his career progressed, he earned successive promotions, and worked on bigger cases. “I got involved in murder investigations,” he says.

There were many, but one case more than any other came to dominate his memory: the massacre perpetrated by Whitehaven cabbie Derrick Bird, on June 2, 2010. The 52-year-old shot dead 12 people and injured 11.

Nine years on, Slattery still remembers the name of every victim. “It was the sheer scale of it,” he says. “You can’t avoid being affected.

“One of those tragedies would have been absolutely awful. To deal with 12, and the people who were injured... when you think about it today it seems unreal.

“The horrific details of this case were replayed over many months by the investigating team but we all took personal satisfaction in conducting a professional investigation for the coroner, which provided answers for the bereaved families.

“The strength shown by the people of these west Cumbrian communities in dealing with those senseless murders was truly humbling. We train and prepare all our staff to meet the unexpected and extraordinary but I hope Cumbria is never again faced with such a devastating crime.”

Slattery also led the investigation into the brutal murder of Carlisle schoolboy Jordan Watson; the 14-year-old was stabbed to death in Carlisle’s Upperby Cemetery.

His three killers are now serving long jail sentences. Slattery says: “From an early stage in the police force, you’re exposed to human tragedy. Very often, you’re working with the families who are left behind, whether it’s a traffic accident or some other horrific incident.

“It leaves a mark on you. You remember them, those tragic cases; certainly, there are things which keep you awake. Anyone who’s been a senior investigating officer will tell you the same. You feel a desire to get justice for people.

“But there’s a danger in that: you need to fall back on doing things objectively and not cutting corners because that’s not how you get justice. You do things fairly, disclosing everything to the court.

“You manage investigations professionally.”

Slattery outlines some of the force’s challenges: burgeoning internet crime, sexual offending (more readily reported because victims feel listened to); and organised crime, including so-called “county lines” conspiracies, with big city criminals callously controlling local drug dealers, some of them young and vulnerable.

Cumbria’s complement of police officers last year rose by 25, he says.

Yet the demands on the force - rated high-performing -continue to grow. More visible policing, improved “digital expertise” and kit, and closer working with public sector partners... all are on his agenda.

Whatever may lie ahead, Andy Slattery is clearly a man who goes the distance. Asked to sum up his career, he grins, and adds: “I’ve loved it.”