Eight Met police facing action over ‘unjustified’ strip-search of woman

 
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Eight Metropolitan Police officers face disciplinary action after a woman arrested outside a Notting Hill nightclub was strip-searched and left naked in a cell in an incident broadcast on CCTV.

Five of the officers who forcibly removed her clothes were recommended for misconduct hearings after investigators ruled their search breached “several areas” of the law.

A sergeant is facing a more serious gross misconduct charge for failing to ensure the search was conducted properly, or to register it in police records. Two other officers, one of whom tried to deter the 22-year-old woman from seeking legal advice, face “management action”.

Details of the incident, at Chelsea police station, were revealed today in an Independent Police Complaints Commission report. It states there was no adequate justification for the strip-search, and that the participation of four male officers was in breach of legislation requiring such checks to be carried out by a person of the same sex as the suspect. The report also reveals the search was conducted in a cell covered by CCTV and that the images, including footage of the woman left naked for 30 minutes afterwards, were broadcast to the custody desk, where an unknown number of people would have been able to watch.

The images continued to be shown until the woman was given back her clothes and allowed to leave the station without charge.

IPCC commissioner Derrick Campbell said she suffered unjustified treatment and “a great deal of distress”, adding: “I am sure, like the complainant, the public will want to understand how this was allowed to happen.”

The search, in March 2011, took place after the woman was arrested outside Supperclub in Acklam Road. Officers described her as intoxicated, distressed, and running in and out of a road, and suspected her of taking and carrying drugs. She was taken in for the search but no drugs were found and no blood tests were carried out to discover whether the woman, who claimed her drink had been spiked, had consumed any illegal substances.

She complained to the Met about her treatment, but appealed to the IPCC after the Scotland Yard probe recommended only “management action” for the officers who strip-searched her and a misconduct hearing for the sergeant. The watchdog has now recommended heavier sanctions.

It rejected two further complaints by the woman, that her arrest was unnecessary and that it took too long to obtain evidence about the incident from a hospital.

The Met had not responded to requests for a comment by the time of going to press.

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