The chief constable of Police Scotland has said up to 50 serving officers are currently suspended over allegations of violence against women and girls.

Jo Farrell said she expected more would face sanctions over their behaviour following a spate of former officers being convicted for sexual offences.

Farrell said a review into the handling of the case of police officer Alan Greer – who was exposed as a serial rapist after taking his own life – was under way.

She added about 8,000 officers were still to be “re-vetted” for their roles after a change in regulations earlier this year.

In an interview with BBC Scotland News, Farrell described the scale of violence against women and girls in Scotland as an “epidemic”, and that police forces were not immune to the problem .

She said: “We’ve got in the order of between currently 40 and 50 people currently suspended, so not at work, who are being investigated for offences that relate to violence against women and girls.

“Those investigations are at various stages.”

A BBC Disclosure investigation in July revealed that Alan Greer had repeatedly attacked and attempted to murder women over a 14-year period.

Further inquiries uncovered that Greer had passed vetting checks to join what was then Strathclyde Police in 2009, despite having two reports of criminal behaviour against women on his record.

Greer took his own life in May at the age of 47.

Farrell said the scope of the review into Greer, parts of which would be made public, would identify whether gaps in the vetting process contributed to his offending being allowed to continue.

“It is an ongoing investigation, but it is also subject to an independent review to find out whether there were any opportunities to identify his offending earlier and whether there is any learning from that,” she told BBC Scotland.

“What is important is that we get that independent review, that colleagues elsewhere in the United Kingdom are looking at that case to identify whether there were any opportunities that were missed.”

Greer is one of three former officers in Scotland to be exposed as rapists this year.

In July, Cameron Ross was jailed for 10 years after he was found guilty of raping two women and threatening to kill another in Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, and in Inverness over a 10-year period.

Ross, 39, has since launched an appeal against both his conviction and his sentence.

Last month, former police sergeant Campbell Petrie, 50, was found guilty of a series of sex attacks on women between 2006 and 2023.

Petrie – who was first arrested following a complaint by one of his victims 17 years ago – was convicted of two counts of rape and a number of other charges including physical and sexual abuse towards two women in Glasgow.

He was suspended by Police Scotland after being charged with the offences in December 2023 but retired from the force two years later.

Another officer, Jay Skivington, 24, was sentenced in October to 160 hours of unpaid work and given five-year non-harassment order for violent offences against a woman.

Farrell said that between 300 and 400 officers had now been re-vetted as part of new rules brought in following the murder of Sarah Everard by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens.

She said the rules would make it easier to “exit people” found to be unsuitable to serve in the force.

“It’s only now during this year there has been a change in the vetting regime. So for the first time, if an officer fails their vetting, they can be exited from policing,” she said.

“So that is a very recent change, and a welcome change from my point of view. Up until that point there were no opportunities to exit people from the organisation.”

Farrell added: “My focus is on identifying where there is wrongdoing, criminality, particularly in relation to violence against women and girls and if that has been committed by our officers and our staff, that we identify it and we ensure that those people feel the full force of the law.”

Craig Naylor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said incidents involving officers were taken “very seriously” when reported to Police Scotland.

He said: “We’ve done work over the last number of years on vetting and police conduct on a number of areas that have highlighted where Police Scotland can improve and they are making improvements in those areas.

“However, police officers are members of society and our society has violent offenders within it so they are likely to be further offenders within Scotland within policing.”

Naylor added: “For me, what we’ve seen with the recent incidents with Mr Greer, with Constable Petrie recently, have shown that when something is reported to Police Scotland they take it very seriously, they put their best resources onto it, they investigate it and they get convictions.”