Hi All

Whilst investigating a complaint of sexual harassment, a heated discussion developed between a witness and the investigating officer about something else that had happened at the same leaving do.  It concerned something the latter had said about the former. The discussion became heated and I was taken aback as I had had no idea what it was about. Later, the investigating officer told me that they had said "I always thought that xyz was rubbish at their job but they have really stepped up recently" to various new team members of the witness at the drinks. With a somewhat "mulish" expression they told me that this was their opinion and they had "nothing to apologise for".  It seems to me that they thought the remark was a compliment!.

Needless to say, the witness got to hear about this and then tried to raise it with the investigating officer on the day after the event.  The witness said that they would have expected the investigating officer to raise any issues about their performance with them or with their line manager, not with new colleagues at a leaving drinks so felt this was inappropriate.  When raising this, they felt that their concerns were dismissed.  Frankly, the behaviour from both during the meeting was not great.  

The witness does not want to raise it "formally" so we are at an impasse.  Any thoughts on best ways to get both to sit down together and speak to each other calmly would be much appreciated. I hope that both can find common ground, this is quite out of character for both and I would like to help them resolve it, but will escalate if not possible as we are a small team and I can't let this fester.