These are the other cases that have been mentioned in other threads and ones that I've found while checking the links:
Cases
11 November 2020
A police officer was given a final written warning but allowed to keep his job after assaulting two off-duty colleagues, one of whom was his wife.
The officer accepted, having seen the footage, that he had assaulted his wife and his colleague...
At the time of the incident Dyfed-Powys Police were actually promoting two anti-violence campaigns – one trying to clamp down on domestic violence and one called Just Walk Away, which urged people to think before acting on nights out.
16 February 2021
An officer was alleged to have assaulted three female officers and faces more than 40 allegations of misconduct. When asked why one of the victims didn't report the detective despite the ongoing abuse at his hands,
The hearing was told she had not done so because people in the force had known about his behaviour for a long time and it had gone unchallenged.
19 March 2021
Channel 4 reported on a woman who was assaulted by an off-duty police officer. They discuss the slow response of the police - it took over 30 hours for the police to take a phone statement, over a week before she saw an officer face-to-face and over 8 weeks before they visited the scene, by which time a lot of CCTV footage had been deleted. It sounds like it was only by chance that a neighbour's CCTV was kept, watched and found to have recorded the assault and without that it's unlikely that they would have done anything - he would have got away with it were it not for that neighbour.
A report from
the Guardian revealed that PC Oliver Banfield, a probationary officer with West Midlands Police was sentenced to,
...a curfew and ordered to pay [the victim] £500... The court heard that Banfield used techniques taught during police training to grab Homer by the neck and try to pull her to the ground as she screamed... Banfield’s lawyer argued against a sentence of community service, saying it would be difficult for him to work with criminals.
Somehow forgetting that he is one too.
24 March 2021
The Guardian reported on a police officer who was sacked for gross misconduct for being "abusive and violent towards a former partner". PC Amarjit Dhallu worked with vulnerable children for Kent police and was dismissed following a hearing where,
it was alleged he had strangled the woman, who was referred to only as Miss A, and hit her with a belt...
Dhallu was also caught on a 999 phone call telling Miss A: “I will smash your f.cking face in.”
28 March 2021
A retired policeman has been charged with sexually assaulting another officer following an investigation into a series of bullying and misogyny allegations three years ago at the Forres police force in Moray, Scotland.
A number of female officers accused male colleagues in 2019 after a woman officer complained she was abandoned in a remote wood at midnight by colleagues as punishment for her making an allegation of domestic abuse against her ex, another officer.
1 April 2021
The Met finally decides to investigate an accusation that one of their officers raped two female colleagues, three years after the fact. The women both received compensation after it was concluded they both had "non-consensual" sex with the officer but despite a criminal investigation being launched, the officer was allowed to continue working and the case was subsequently dropped by the CPS in 2019. Both women allege that the officer physically assaulted them during their relationships.
After a few months he became controlling and violent, she told the BBC, and one night in 2013 he dragged her by the hair and "threw me into the dining room table” and against the arm of a sofa, cracking her ribs.
"It was an unbelievable amount of pain. I couldn't get my breath," she said.
Neighbours called the police but Holly was too afraid to report the assault.
28 April 2021
Two Met officers, PC Deniz Jaffer and PC Jamie Lewis, were charged with misconduct in a public office after they took photos of themselves posing next to the dead bodies of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, sisters who had been
murdered by Danyal Hussein. The police officers allegedly took photos of the sisters at the crime scene and shared them on WhatsApp. Their trial was due to take place in July but has
since been postponed with "no date" logged.
It should be noted that this was not the only failing of the police during this case. The Met has
apologised to their family for the way it responded when they were reported missing.
Mina Smallman, the sisters' mother, said the Met had shown "incompetent, reprehensible and blatant disregard of agreed procedures regarding missing persons" during its investigation...
Ms Smallman added that the on-duty call handler had made "inappropriate and manipulating assertions, which led to cancellation of the missing persons report.
"We're also of the view that his unprofessional comments about the picnic suggests racial profiling, misogyny or classism."
Suffice it to say, they have not accepted the apology.
Ms Smallman said: "Sorry is something you say when you comprehend the wrong you do and take full responsibility for it. Demonstrating that by taking appropriate proportionate action which to our minds is not going to happen.
"The investigation was not handled appropriately. The apology should have been done face-to-face and not nearly 10 months later."
7 May 2021
A police officer who was accused of sexual assault was cleared of all charges though it seems that no-one denied they happened:
...a senior judge told him that he needed to address his appalling prehistoric attitudes towards women.
He firmly denied the offences and claimed his behaviour only involved jokey and flirtatious banter.
During his trial it was claimed that his behaviour included putting his hand down the back of victims’ trousers, touching their bottoms, undoing the clasps of the bras of two women and walking down the street cupping the breasts of one of them.
Ford, who was then based in Burnley, disputed the women’s evidence and denied that any of his actions were sexually motivated...
Ford said: “I never touched a bum except for a laugh...”.
He said that unclipping bras was “a bit of a childish joke” and said such behaviour happened “on many police do’s”. He also claimed that officers touched each others bottoms in the police station “quite regularly”.
He denied it was behaviour he could not control and described two of the alleged victims as “flirtatious”. He denied cupping the breasts of one woman and said that he only touched them later to check they were real but that was with her consent.
His lawyer said that,
He could be over-familiar, over-tactile but that is a million miles away from making him a sex offender.
It is not. He is a sex offender. Just one that is not convicted and is likely continuing his behaviour as it has been validated in a court of law as "banter". So I will take this opportunity to say "f.ck banter". It's a term that is used to excuse abuse both verbal and physical and I absolutely hate it.
9 July 2021
PC Wayne Couzens pleaded guilty to murdering Sarah Everard.
30 September 2021
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that the use of undercover police against protest movements were "unlawful and sexist". Undercover officer (UCO) Mark Kennedy deceived women into intimate relationships in order to infiltrate protest organisations.
The judgment also criticised the Metropolitan Police conduct of the case, stating that many contemporaneous documents “crie[d] out for an explanation”, and that there was “no reason that we can see why we were not provided with a statement from a witness with direct knowledge of these matters”. The factual evidence provided by the police was deemed “unsatisfactory”, and the ruling noted that, were it not for Ms Wilson’s tenacity and perseverance, “much of what this case has revealed would not have come to light”.
The ruling concludes:
“This is a formidable list of Convention violations, the severity of which is underscored in particular by the violations of Arts 3 and 14. This is not just a case about a renegade police officer who took advantage of his undercover deployment to indulge his sexual proclivities, serious though this aspect of the case unquestionably is. Our findings that the authorisations under RIPA were fatally flawed and the undercover operation could not be justified as “necessary in a democratic society”, as required by the ECHR, reveal disturbing and lamentable failings at the most fundamental levels.”
The Tribunal ruled that the failure to prevent undercover officers entering into sexual relationships primarily impacted women[iv], to the extent that it amounted to sexist discrimination under Article 14.
3 October 2021
PC David Carrick, a serving Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with rape. He was accused of raping a woman on 4 September 2020 while off-duty. No explanation is given in the article for why it took over a year for him to be charged.
5 October 2021
Patsy Stevenson, the woman arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil, claims that she has been approached by officers on Tinder.
She said that since the arrest, "about 50" police officers and security guards had approached her via the dating app.
"They were all in uniform on their profiles or it said 'I'm a police officer'," she said.
"I do not understand why someone would do that.
"It is almost like an intimidation thing, saying 'look we can see you', and that, to me, is terrifying.
15 October 2021
A police officer sent 56 messages to a "highly suggestible" young domestic violence victim. He also invited her into his home and hugged and kissed her, amongst a "catalogue of breaches". The officer has been granted lifelong anonymity to protect his "welfare" though the press have been prohibited from explaining why. His victim said,
"If I need help now I would hesitate to call the police as they are just normal people and they do bad things. "I also worry about calling police now... What he did wasn't right and I felt like other police officers might be like that."
Statistics
02 April 2019
FOI requests by The Independent found that,
Between the start of 2012 and 2 June 2018, a total of 562 officers were accused of sexual assault and only 43 faced subsequent proceedings, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act. Of those 43, 31 had formal action taken against them, and the remaining 12 were subject to informal "management action". Eighty-five cases are still being considered. But the vast majority – 420 – faced no action.
Some 313 of the accusations were made by members of the public, while the remaining 249 came from fellow police staff.
18 May 2019
FOI requests by The Observer found that,
1,491 complaints were filed against police officers, special constables and police community support officers (PCSOs) across 33 forces in England and Wales between 2012 and 2017, or 2018 in the case of the Metropolitan Police in London, which took a year to respond to the FOI request by the Observer.
Of these cases, 371 were upheld, resulting in the sacking or resignation of 197 officers, special constables and PCSOs. Ten police forces did not provide data...
The largest force, the Met, accounts for 594 complaints, of which 119 were upheld, leading to 63 dismissals, retirements and resignations.
The figures for the Met differ slightly from those obtained by The Independent. Both of them obtained their figures from FOI requests so there may be slight differences in what they asked. I've had a look through
www.whatdotheyknow.com but I can't find a way to refine the search by date - if anyone knows please say!
01 May 2019
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that,
Police officers and staff across the UK were reported for alleged domestic abuse almost 700 times in the three years up to April 2018.. The real figure is likely to be much higher as data was only provided by 37 of the UK’s 48 police forces (including specialist forces)...
Beyond the number of allegations, the figures suggest reports about alleged abuse by police are treated differently. Just 3.9% in England and Wales ended in a conviction, compared with 6.2% among the general population. Less than a quarter of reports resulted in any sort of professional discipline. Greater Manchester Police, one of the country’s biggest forces, secured just one conviction out of 79 reports over the three year period.
9 March 2020
The Centre for Women's Justice submitted a super-complaint claiming that women abused by police officers are being systemically denied justice. This seems to be a continuation of the work done by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in 2019. On 8 September 2020 the super-complaint was deemed
eligible for investigation.
4 November 2020
The police barred list for 1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020 was released. It showed that of the 232 officers dismissed,
31 were dismissed for abuse of position for sexual purpose
20 were dismissed for assault
12 were dismissed for a child sex offence
11 were dismissed for domestic abuse
17 were dismissed for indecent images
It doesn't say whether any criminal proceedings were brought against these officers.
15 March 2021
Byline Times reports on an FOI request to the Met which revealed that between Jan 2018 and August 2020 58 Met staff (officers and staff) faced sexual misconduct proceedings and 26 were arrested for sexual offences.
20 March 2021
The Observer reports on,
An extraordinary catalogue of sexual misconduct allegations against Metropolitan police officers, including claims that one had sex with a rape victim and another assaulted a domestic abuse survivor...
The figures actually seem to be those reported in 2019, though it goes into more detail about some of the cases than the original reporting.
Among those was a Met officer who was dismissed after allegedly pretending to be a woman online “to advance his sexual proclivities and also film a woman apparently having non-consensual sex with a male in a public park”.
Another officer was forced to leave the Met over allegations that he was having a “sexual relationship with a resident in a women’s refuge”, a safe house where victims of domestic violence seek sanctuary.
Other serious cases include an officer who met a woman while on duty and later visited her home where sexual intercourse led to an allegation of rape. He received a verbal warning and management advice, the least severe censure an officer can receive following a misconduct hearing.
It also complied data from the police barred list from its inception,
Of the 555 officers barred since the list was introduced in December 2017, more than 1,100 reasons for dismissal are listed of which more than 200 involve sexual, harassment or domestic abuse offences. Nearly a quarter of the barred officers served in the Met.
23 July 2021
FoI requests by My London found that,
160 officers were received allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment of other sexual misconduct across 2019 and 2020. A further 33 officers received allegations through the first five months of this year...
Since 2010, 771 Met officers have received allegations of sexual misconduct from colleagues...
Within that total, 191 individuals within the force have been arrested on suspicion of committing a sexual offence.
28 September 2021
The Femicide Census reported that 16 women have been killed by serving or retired officers since 2009. I will go through these deaths in a later post.
Police Culture
17 March 2021
Susannah Fish, former chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police, spoke in March 2021 of a "toxic culture of sexism" in significant parts of policing.
7 April 2021
Susannah Fish spoke publicly about her sexual assault by two senior colleagues. She said she did not report the first assault as she did not think she would be believed and while she reported the second assault the officer, who was significantly more senior than her, remained in his position.
20 March 2021
Former Greater Manchester Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said in March 2021 that the police culture was misogynistic and that not only would he discourage his daughters from joining the police but he would advise against them reporting any violence to the police.
30 September 2021
Former Met Chief Superintendent Parm Sandhu said on BBC World at One in September 2021 that female officers don't report male officers because they "close ranks" and you risk being abandoned in high risk situation.
3 October 2021
Ex-Detective Superintendent Paige Kimberley told the Daily Mail in October 2021 that she wrote to Cressida Dick and Home Secretary Priti Patel about vulgar and sexist messages being exchanged amongst contract workers in the Met but was ignored. She reported the messages which were investigated and determined to be "distasteful" but did not amount to misconduct. The day after she reported the images a job offer was withdrawn.
6 October 2021
An employment tribunal rule that there was a "sexist culture" in the armed response vehicles unit (ARV) in the east of Scotland following accusations against the force of sex discrimination and victimisation by former firearms officer Rhona Malone.
It also found that Ms Malone was an "entirely credible and reliable witness", but the evidence of her former superior, Insp Keith Warhurst, was "contradictory, confusing and ultimately incredible"...
In its judgement, the tribunal accepted evidence that there was an "absolute boys' club culture" within the ARV which was "horrific". It also found:
- Sgt Rachel Coates, a former colleague of Ms Malone, was told by the chief firearms instructor that women should not become AFOs "because they menstruated and that affected their temperament".
- When Sgt Coates asked if women AFOs could wear trousers and a top, rather than a one-piece, so it would be easier to go to the toilet, the chief firearms instructor swore at her.
- Insp Warhurst posted images of topless women to a WhatsApp group of male sergeants within the Fettes Team 1. A colleague messaged him and told him it was inappropriate.
- Another former colleague of Ms Malone overheard Insp Warhust calling one of the female Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) agents "a wee lassie".
- Sgt Coates and another colleague, Constable Zara Taylor, left the ARV division as they were "not confident that the sexist culture...was going to change and felt their sex was always going to be a barrier to promotion".
Also
October 6 2021
Detective Chief Inspector James Mason has kept his job despite trying to seduce the victim of an attempted robbery.
After taking her statement at Kentish Town police station in 2011, he emailed her the next day telling her she was “amazingly hot” and that he had “no shame and could get fired”.
At his misconduct hearing, DCI Mason claimed he only asked if the woman had a boyfriend when taking her statement out of concern for her support as a victim.
At the hearing’s conclusion on October 6, the panel found DCI Mason’s behaviour was “gross misconduct”. He was not fired but was barred from a promotion for three years...
The panel chose not to punish DCI Mason more severely because of his remorse and “excellent service record”...
“The delay in this matter is mainly due to the delay [the woman] making a complaint to the Metropolitan Police. The issues arising currently are very topical but were much less so in 2011.”
Gotta get the victim-blaming in there somehow.
12 October 2021
Radio presenter Emma Wilson said that Wayne Couzens flashed her in 2008 and that Met police officers dismissed her.
She explained how she ran into a nearby shop to alert police who then visited her to take a statement.
"They were asking me what I could see... he was playing with himself and there were specifics about his state of arousal that they thought were quite amusing. It was really humiliating," Ms Wilson said.
