Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Met Police officer accused of raping two colleagues faces misconduct probe

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date01 April 2021
Date01 April 2021
Publication titleMyLondon (England)
The unnamed officer, who was reportedly in abusive relationships with both women, was not charged or suspended and continued working for Britain’s largest police force in a reduced capacity, according to an investigation by the BBC with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Last year, the Government-run Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority CICA awarded both women significant sums of money after concluding police evidence suggested each had been subject to sexual and physical abuse.

The off-duty alleged offences were reported to Essex Police in 2017, and it said it carried out a lengthy inquiry but acknowledged there were “areas for improvement in the management of these investigations”.

The force added it was told there was “no realistic prospect of charge” after passing its file to the Crown Prosecution Service CPS in 2019.

An Essex Police statement said: “As a result, the suspect for both investigations was told he would face no further action.

“In this case, there was no immediate safeguarding concern due to the non-recent nature of the allegations and the lack of contact between suspect and victims.”

But one of the women, who was given the pseudonym Holly to protect her anonymity, told the BBC it was a “really bad investigation” with poor evidence-gathering, and she claimed Essex Police “didn’t even finish taking all my allegations”.

Scotland Yard said its professional standards body monitored the criminal investigation and then “determined in late February 2021 that the officer had a case to answer for gross misconduct”.

Siobhan Crawford, a solicitor who works with survivors of sexual abuse, suggested the Metropolitan Police took “far too long” to take any “positive steps” over the allegations.

She told the PA news agency the case could “sound alarm bells about how survivors of domestic abuse are treated in the first instance”, and she indicated it could discourage other women from coming forward.

Ms Crawford said: “These women are police officers as well, they know what a good, proper investigation looks like and they knew they were let down and they were able to raise that.

“Survivors of sexual...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT