Who is Chief Constable Philip Osborne in Line Of Duty?

LINE Of Duty fans are keeping a watchful eye on suspicious Chief Constable Philip Osborne.

The dodgy copper is widely suspected to be The Fourth Man due to his history of cover-ups and OCG links - here's what we know about him...

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Who is Chief Constable Philip Osborne?

Line Of Duty's Philip Osborne is the Chief Constable of Central Police - a promotion which Superintendent Ted Hastings calls an "outrage".

Osborne was previously leader of the Counter Terrorism Unit of Central Police in season one.

He popped up again in the sixth series as AC-12 scrolled through archive footage, in which he appeared lying about the inquiry into Karim Ali.

AC-12 is seen reviewing unaired footage of Osborne being interviewed by journalist Gail Vella, who was later murdered.

In the interview, Vella presses Osborne on dodgy police figures, eventually prompting him to storm away from the interview.

It was later revealed in series six that Osborne was the driving force behind the redundancies and merger of AC-12.

Finally, it was revealed that Osborne had been involved in the bungled investigation into Lawrence Christopher's murder, the case which journalist Gail Vella had been investigating.

Has Chief Constable Philip Osborne been in Line Of Duty before?

Philip Osborne was introduced in the first series of the hit police drama as  leader of the Counter Terrorism Unit of Central Police.

He was suspicious from the start - telling his team to lie in court to cover up the unlawful killing of Karim Ali.

In the final episode of season one, Osborne attributes the Borogrove Estate murders to terrorists, when it was actually the OCG responsible.

He was also pals with Chief Superintendent Derek Hilton, who was later revealed to be one of H.

DS Steve Arnott, who went on to join Hastiings' AC-12 team, was the only member of the operation who refused to cover up the Ali killing.

Could Chief Constable Philip Osborne be 'H'?

Chief Constable Philip Osborne certainly has enough on his record to be a very bent copper.

And some fans are convinced that he is The Fourth Man.

He certainly has potential OCG links and has been set on hampering the progress of AC-12's investigation, first appointing dodgy AC-3 chief Patricia Carmichael to head up their operations.

He halted funding for their surveillance operations, essentially giving Jo Davidson and Ryan Pilkington free reign to do what they like.

One fan's theory read: "Whilst Osborne being the last 'H' doesn’t necessarily change the circumstances of the Karim coverup, it does diminish it (imo) [in my opinion] given that Osborne was already involved in organised crime, as well as the possible connection between the OCG and counter-terrorism (the false link between the Greek Lane murders and Islamic terrorists in S1 etc)."

Another wrote: "#LineOfDuty Chief Constable Philip Osborne is the driver in all this. He is the link to the OCG I'm sure of it. He was dodgy from series 1."