Bury MBC’s suspended chief executive, Mike Owen, resigned ahead of this week’s hearing into his handling of historical child abuse allegations.

The MJ understands Mr Owen resigned late last week and was not present when Bury’s human resources and appeals panel convened this week to discuss the case.

Two other senior officials at Bury – children’s services director Mark Carriline and monitoring officer Jayne Hammond – were suspended alongside Mr Owen in February.

Mr Carriline is believed to have been found guilty of serious misconduct and the panel is understood to have recommended to full council that he is dismissed without notice. 

Ms Hammond has been cleared.

A council spokeswoman said: 'The panel noted with concern the findings of the independent investigation reports regarding Mr Owen’s role in the historic child safeguarding issue under review, but noted that as Mr Owen was no longer an employee of the council it had no jurisdiction to reach any conclusions on the matter.'