Police Commissioner David Baines fears that the weekend controversy about the visit of Merseyside Chief Constable Jon Murphy to the Cayman Islands will stop UK police answering future calls for help.

“I’m frustrated by it, yes,” the commissioner said of the Daily Mail’s lavishly illustrated Saturday story of Mr Murphy and two colleagues on the Marriott Hotel beach, “but I have a real concern that this nonsense type of reporting poses a real threat, that it is just not worth going to help, not worth responding to calls for assistance.

“This erroneous and misleading reporting is totally unjustified. It will not be lost on Mr Murphy’s colleagues in the UK who will ask if this is worth the trouble,” Mr Baines told iNews.

He was reacting to Saturday’s front-page, nationwide Daily Mail feature, purporting to expose Mr Murphy, Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Doherty and similarly ranked Brian McNeill on an expenses-paid seaside holiday.

The Mail, which sells more than two million copies a day, also featured an article from iNews in which Mr Murphy insisted the trip “would not be a jolly”. Our same story appeared in the Sunday Mirror and on Sky News television.

The trio, at the request of Governor Duncan Taylor and Mr Baines, were here to outline the role of 20 arriving northwest-UK detectives, helping local police address September’s gang-related violence.

The Daily Mail, which earlier exposed 2008’s ill-fated and now-discredited $10 million anti-corruption Operation Tempura investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police, tailed Mr Murphy’s team throughout their five-day stay, photographing their leisure activities, including a Stingray City visit on Mr Baines’s boat.

“The newspaper focused on photos of them at the beach, in swimsuits, and a visit to Stingray City,” Mr Baines said, “taking advantage of their time off, and enjoying what everyone else in the Cayman Islands takes for granted. It was a little silly, but it projected an image that was wholly unfair and wholly unrepresentative.”

He said the incident would not, however, discourage the Merseysiders’ mission.

“My concern and Mr Murphy’s was that the reporting would affect the officers, but it will not affect how they work. They are here to do a job and to support their colleagues in the RCIPS. They will work shifts and do what we ask them to do. In the meantime, though, you cannot expect them to live like hermits,” Mr Baines said.

Mr Murphy, intercepted after his Saturday arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport, rejected any talk of resignation, saying “small amounts of downtime” were part of the trio’s schedule.

“I was asked to do two things – put together a team of experienced detectives from across the North West forces to support the RCIPS and go in my capacity as the business lead for ACPO [Association of Chief Police Officers] on serious and organised crime,” he said.

“In addition, I felt it important to ensure the safety of the team of officers – who have now arrived on the island – was guaranteed in a hostile environment.”

He released a detailed itinerary, starting with his Monday, 9pm George Town arrival after a 16-hour economy-class flight.

“On Tuesday morning, the group started work at 10am and worked through to 6pm before a working dinner,” the schedule said.

“On Wednesday, all three officers went for a swim before work at 8:40am, which consisted of various meetings and briefing until 4pm. Another swim followed, then drinks and another working dinner.

“Thursday saw an early start at 7:45am to draft reports while the chief constable met the Cayman education minister. At 2pm, they went out on the commissioner’s boat and followed this with a coffee at the hotel. There was another working dinner at 7pm.

“On Friday, the final day, the group was picked up at 6:30am for a radio interview, then met politicians and briefed them on their findings. They conducted a press conference at 12pm where local reporters were told the trip was ‘not a jolly’ before heading off to the airport for 2pm and another 16-hour flight back to Liverpool in economy class,” the summary said.

“I feel that neither myself, nor the senior officers who accompanied me, have anything to hide,” Mr Murphy said, conceding that the RCIPS had paid for the visit. “They, along with representatives of the government, have thanked us for the hard work and assistance we have given.”

In a prepared statement, Mr Baines said Mr Murphy and his team “worked hard during their time in the Cayman Islands,” completing a “grueling schedule,” delivering “much more than we had originally asked of them.

“The story covered by the tabloids in the UK does not reflect that. It merely undermines and devalues the extent and quality of the advice and guidance provided by these highly experienced officers. All it has achieved is to turn what should be a very positive story about UK policing into a cheap headline-grabbing swipe at the professionalism of those officers and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service.”