A police officer who probes misconduct in the Met is being investigated himself after being accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague
A serving police officer who probes misconduct in the Met is himself being investigated over claims he sexually assaulted a female colleague.
The police constable was arrested last June and later released ‘pending further inquiries’. It is understood the woman had previously complained about his alleged inappropriate behaviour.
The man, who was on duty at the time of the alleged attack, works as a professional standards officer for the Met’s South Area Command.
His case came to light as it was revealed scandal-hit Scotland Yard is urgently investigating more than 1,000 officers and staff following the exposure of David Carrick, one of Britain’s worst rapists. Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted his force ‘let women and girls down’ by failing to spot signs that Carrick, a 48-year-old constable, was a dangerous predator.
A serving police officer who probes misconduct in the Met is himself being investigated over claims he sexually assaulted a female colleague. The police constable was arrested last June and later released ‘pending further inquiries’. It is understood the woman had previously complained about his alleged inappropriate behaviour
His case came to light as it was revealed scandal-hit Scotland Yard is urgently investigating more than 1,000 officers and staff following the exposure of David Carrick, one of Britain’s worst rapists. Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted his force ‘let women and girls down’ by failing to spot signs that Carrick, a 48-year-old constable, was a dangerous predator
Carrick had been reported for crimes nine times since 2000. But he kept his job as an armed officer in Scotland Yard’s parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit.
He abused that elite position to coerce terrified victims in a depraved campaign of sexual abuse. Carrick admitted 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape, stretching from 2003 to 2020.
The Met, which has been called an ‘institution in crisis’ by women’s groups, said it was reviewing 1,633 cases involving 1,071 of its officers and staff who have faced complaints of domestic abuse or sexual offending in the past decade.
A spokesman said the professional standards officer was ‘arrested on June 2 following an allegation of sexual assault while he was on duty… The officer has been suspended.’
The cases relating to other Met officers that are being reviewed include those that resulted in no action or no criminal allegations. Sir Mark, who replaced Dame Cressida Dick last September, said he would write to Home Secretary Suella Braverman and London Mayor Sadiq Khan in March with the review’s findings.
In a further blow, the Met was yesterday accused of suppressing a serious sexual assault claim involving another serving officer, despite Sir Mark’s pledge to root out misogyny in the ranks.
A former police employee claimed the Met tried to ‘gaslight and bully’ her after she came forward with allegations that a detective constable forced himself on her at work in March 2019. Misconduct proceedings against the officer collapsed just 11 days before the hearing, when the woman claims she was told the force’s disciplinary unit had ‘just lost a sexual offence hearing and didn’t want to lose another one’.
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