policing
Senior Female Asian Metropolitan Police Staffer Quits Over Force Racism Following Boycott Call
The Metropolitan Police has seen a senior female Asian staff member resign citing an “environment [of] discrimination” which had given her “depression and anxiety” and made the force “impossible” to work in, Byline Times can reveal.
The Met Police is under the spotlight for its failure to tackle the ‘institutional racism’ highlighted in last year’s Casey Report, which found Black officers were 81% more likely to be subject to misconduct proceedings than White colleagues.
Now Amina Ahmed, a Muslim leadership program facilitator and project manager at The Met who has spent 14 years working in intelligence, counter-terrorism and diversity and inclusion, has quit her job saying the “discrimination” she faced had “significantly hindered both my career growth and overall wellbeing”.
Ms Ahmed claimed serious complaints she had made to her managers concerning racism, misogyny, discrimination, bullying, harassment, and sexual assault by male colleagues had all been ignored.
She added her resignation was in solidarity with a call on Monday by the National Black Police Association (NBPA) for ethnic minorities to boycott joining the Met.
Damning Resignation Letter
Ahmed said: “I feel compelled to step down from my role as a leadership facilitator at the Metropolitan Police Service.
“Throughout my tenure at the Metropolitan Police, I have faced discrimination that has significantly hindered both my career growth and overall wellbeing.
“I believe that all individuals are entitled to equal treatment and respect. Nevertheless, operating in an environment that condones discrimination flies in the face of these values.
“Although I cherish the opportunities bestowed upon me, the situation of discrimination within the organisation has made me resign unwillingly.”
She added: “In solidarity with my colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Service… who have suffered discrimination and victimisation for speaking out, I fully support the [National] Black Police Association's call to boycott ethnic minorities joining the organisation in the pursuit of genuine progress and change.
“I express my unwavering support for my fellow brothers and sisters within the Metropolitan Police family who are fighting for equity, fairness and cultural tolerance, despite facing considerable challenges and repercussions from doing so.
“My thoughts and prayers are with them as they relentlessly and courageously pursue these important values.”
In her resignation letter, which she addressed to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, Ahmed said she had raised a number of complaints and concerns about racism over the years through “legitimate channels”, but had been ignored.
They included witnessing police officers “complaining about immigrants and their displeasure that London is too diverse”.
Ahmed also disclosed to her seniors how an officer had said a Muslim asylum seeker dying “deserved it”. She also reported hearing numerous male officers “joke about rape victims and bragging about their previous sexual conquests”.
Ahmed also claimed she had witnessed an officer respond to a news report of an IDF soldier kicking innocent civilians praying in a mosque with, “we should do that here in the UK”.
Litany of Complaints
Ahmed says her contribution towards the Met’s ‘Race Action Plan’ led to her to make “serious” disclosures concerning racism, misogyny, discrimination, bullying, harassment, and sexual assault occurring in the force.
They included how one female colleague had been invited to intimate sex parties by senior male colleagues whilst working in London’s Counter Terrorism Policing.
She also alleged that colleagues who were members of ‘Freemasons Lodge’ never faced any repercussions and “policy allowed them to evade such consequences”. But Ahmed says all of her concerns were “dismissed”.
And, instead of acting on her complaints, she claims to have been “ostracised by senior colleagues, no longer invited to key meetings, removed from social groups, and even blocked from developmental opportunities”.
She says she passed a promotional interview in March 2023, yet was never promoted. Then, last November, Ahmed was herself investigated by the Met after she wrote on LinkedIn about the “war in Gaza”, saying support for Israel should be a “hate crime”.
This, she claims, was deliberately leaked to the media, and was reported by MailOnline. Ahmed said the “continuous victimisation and detriments [she] was suffering and the lack of any redress, [led her] mental and physical health” to deteriorate.
All of which, she added, made it impossible for her to continue in her role.
In a post on LinkedIn, Ahmed wrote: “Despite raising my complaints through legitimate channels, no action has been taken to resolve the issue, making it impossible to continue working.
“I acknowledge that this decision is not without deep and thorough reflection. I have always aimed to contribute positively to the advancement of The Metropolitan Police Service while also cherishing the relationships I have formed with my colleagues.
“However, my circumstances have been untenable, leaving me with no alternative but to seek another opportunity elsewhere.”
Regarding the articles by the Mail “and other right-wing tabloids”, she continued: “I would like to emphasise that my intentions while responding to a post discussing the Gaza casualties were solely of a humanitarian nature, not political.
“I condemn violence, hate, and terrorism directed towards any community. I have unequivocally condemned violent acts perpetrated against Jews and Muslims while also advocating for unity among all ethnicities.
“Hate has no religion, culture, creed, or class, but rather manifests itself in individuals who feel entitled to impose their will on others.”
Boycott Call
Ahmed's decision comes after the NBPA called on Monday for People of Colour not to join the force, as he felt his organisation could not ensure they would not face discrimination.
NBPA president Andy George wrote to Rowley, citing the treatment of the Met Black Police Association [MBPA] Chairman Charles Ehikioya, who the NBPA claim is facing racial discrimination in the form of an unfounded disciplinary action, after he spoke out against police racism.
Mr George said: “The letter and press release I sent out on Monday was not just about the Met Black Police Association Chair. There are many people suffering discrimination and disproportionate targeting within [the] Metropolitan Police.
“When people raise complaints about discrimination, they are often met with disbelief from white managers who turn the complaint around and make the victim the perpetrator.
“I have had numerous people come forward since the press report wanting their stories told and we are sad but not surprised to read [Amira Ahmed].
“Things need to change and the [Met] Commissioner [Mark Rowley] must listen and act. These issues are most acute in Metropolitan Police but are present in other forces across the UK.
“Something must be done and it is sad the Police Race Action Plan has made little change and is getting closed down in March 2025 when there is so much to be done.”
The Metropolitan Police has been approached for comment and we will update this article when they respond.
Sweet Little Lies: The Surreptitious Spread of Police Polygraph Testing
Police have spent at least £745,000 on “lie detector” test training and equipment with almost no public scrutiny, Byline Times can reveal.
Freedom of Information requests show that at least 14 forces – one-third of the total in England and Wales - have paid money to the main UK trainer and supplier of polygraphs in the last ten years.
While there has been little public debate on the matter, the use of the devices has been allowed in the criminal justice system since 2014.
Many people associate “lie detector” tests with sensationalist talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show. That was pulled off air in 2019 after a guest, Steve Dymond, took his own life after failing a test when asked if he had cheated on his partner. He insisted that he had not done so. The then culture committee chair Damian Collins called its producers “irresponsible” for overstating the reliability of the devices to participants and viewers.
Polygraphs work as their operators monitor bodily processes such as sweat and heart rate while questioning people. Major changes to those are believed to suggest dishonesty. Critics say that while polygraph equipment can accurately measure some physiological activities, these aren’t proven to reflect a single process such as dishonesty and are not shown consistently among different people. Methods to beat the tests can also be learnt.
Their evidence is not believed to be strong enough to be used in court, or in criminal investigations.
Professor Ray Bull, an expert in forensic psychology, who gave evidence to the culture committee looking at the Jeremy Kyle Show and to the Litvinenko Inquiry, told Byline Times: “Because you plug it in and it’s some kind of gadget, you mustn’t be under the false impression that it’s accurate.”
In law enforcement, the devices were first used in 2014 with the probation service and police using them to quiz sex offenders as part of monitoring arrangements. Some offenders volunteer to be monitored, but others are made to take the tests as part of efforts to determine whether they pose a risk to the public or not. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021 have widened its use to those convicted of domestic abuse and terrorism released on license.
Marion Oswald, professor of law at Northumbria University, said: “It’s really being used as an interrogation technique, but without any of the safeguards that we would usually expect in our criminal justice system.
“Like facial recognition and other technology, without clear standards and legal rules about polygraph testing by the police, citizens and even parliament can’t understand why and how the polygraph is being used, and what risks this poses."
FOI data supplied to Byline Times found that Northumbria Police was the biggest spender on the polygraph, paying £125,834 between April 2016 and the end of March 2023. Kent Police was the second largest with an £80,613 spend, with Norfolk the third biggest spender with £77,760. Separately, the Ministry of Justice, which runs prison and probation services, has issued contracts worth a combined £2.6m for polygraphs since 2014.
The College of Policing, the professional body for police in the UK, is working to establish national standards for the use of the devices. Up to now, standards have been set by the polygraph training provider itself – a private company. The College also plans to set up a facility to take over the training of police and other public bodies in its use, after concerns were raised by senior police that the provision of existing training is “inadequate”.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: “There is evidence polygraph can be effective in eliciting disclosures from some sex offenders. It is not used directly in legal proceedings – it is an intelligence tool to assist in managing those who pose a risk of harm to the public.”
During a parliamentary committee in December the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall said he had come to back the use of the devices in the wake of the 2019 attack at Fishmongers’ Hall by London Bridge.
“Let us say that someone is in the community, they could be asked about their daily routine. The most likely outcome is that someone who is subject to a polygraph measure would feel that they have to tell the truth, and the evidence is that people who are subject to polygraphs make admissions.
“That would give counter-terrorism police an amazing source of information to show that, contrary to what that person had been telling his probation officer, he was still in touch with [a] dangerous terrorist,” he said.
This could enable new licence conditions to impose restrictions on potentially dangerous behaviour, he added.
Professor Bull agreed that it is right that the College of Policing is developing standards but expressed concern about the potential wider use of the polygraph, given it is not accurate as a lie detector.
“Given that the monitoring is ongoing, the people who do it ought to be properly trained and accredited, but is this the thin end of the wedge? Are the police going to get under the false impression that it could be used in the investigative setting? For me, that’s a real no-no.”
The full amount spent by police on polygraph training and equipment could be higher than is currently known, as five forces did not respond to requests for information. And critics warn that the secrecy around their use needs to change.
Professor Oswald said: “One of the things we’re really concerned about is lack of transparency and being able to get a clear picture of what is going on. You shouldn’t have to put in requests about spending on training, this isn’t a covert tactic, it should be something that’s discussed in the open.”
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “We have been using polygraph since 2016, when we became one of the first police forces in the country to make use of the technology.
“We use polygraph tests as part of our broader management of sexual offenders and their use is largely voluntary.
“The use of polygraph testing has proved to be a very useful tool and, as a force, we are keen to find and build on innovative ways to keep our communities safe.”
The Post Office Scandal: Why Do Miscarriages of Justice Take So Long to Expose?
While much has rightly been made of how long it took for the falsely convicted sub-postmasters to have their names cleared, an even older and equally disturbing miscarriage of justice found its way back to the court of appeal this very week on 18 January.
It was in 1977 that two British Rail workers, Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, were jailed for stealing parcels from a goods depot in south London but it has taken more than four decades for this injustice to be addressed and in the meantime both men have died.
“We express our regret that so many years have passed before action was taken,” Lord Justice Holroyde told a packed Court 7, which included many of the relatives of the two men. “We cannot turn back the clock but we can and do quash the convictions.” Peterkin died in 1991 and Mehmet, from Covid, in 2021. The court heard that both had been deeply affected by their convictions; when Mehmet was robbed during his later work as a minicab driver he did not bother to report it to the police because he so distrusted them.
While there are many, many figures now being identified as responsible for the Post Office scandal, the man who was chiefly to blame for the framing of Mehmet and Peterkin, and at least a dozen other young men, has long been known. He is Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell of the British Transport police who died at the age of 37 in 1982 in Ford prison in Sussex where he was himself serving a seven year sentence for stealing mailbags and goods worth more than £364,000.
Described in court as “dishonest, corrupt and racist” by Henry Blaxland KC, representing the two families, Ridgewell was involved in a series of cases in the early 1970s in which young black men were falsely accused of “mugging” on the London underground and were convicted and jailed. Despite serious concerns about Ridgewell at the time, campaigns on behalf of the jailed men known as 'the Oval Four' and 'the Stockwell Six' and an exposé on BBC’s Nationwide television programme, he carried on regardless.
“What might have been expected…is the British Transport Police (BTP) might have conducted a thorough investigation into Detective Sergeant Ridgewell with the end result that he might have been dismissed,” Blaxland told the court. “What happened instead was that he was moved to a different section.” This was the department responsible for investigating mailbag theft where he duly joined up with two others with whom he cheerfully split the profits of stolen goods. Blaxland added that, although one might also have expected that the BTP would then have examined all the disputed cases in which Ridgewell was involved, nothing was done.
It was not until 2018 that one of Ridgewell’s victims, Steve Simmons, who had been arrested with two friends for stealing mailbags back in 1975, was cleared. Simmons, a businessman from Dorking in Surrey, and one of Ridgewell’s few white victims, was 62 when his conviction was quashed. At the time of their arrest they had been told by a duty solicitor that if they called the police liars, the judge would jail them for a long time. Despite the solicitor’s warnings, they pleaded not guilty but were all jailed. Simmons’s case was eventually investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and was the forerunner of a series of appeals by Ridgewell’s victims.
After Mehmet and Peterkin’s successful appeal, their relatives and legal team gathered outside the court to speak to the media and curious passers-by. “They were treated as crooks but the only real crooks were the police officers who fitted them up,” said their lawyer, Matt Foot, co-director of Appeal, the legal practice that tackles miscarriages of justice.
Also present in court and outside was Winston Trew, one of ‘the Oval Four’ , who were fitted up by Ridgewell in 1972. Trew has played a key role in exposing Ridgewell and has co-authored, with the former BTP detective superintendent Graham Satchwell, the book, Rot at the Core: The Serious Crimes of a Detective Sergeant, published in 2021, which explains how Ridgewell was able to get away with his fit-ups for so long. “There was enough evidence to sack Ridgewell in 1973,” said Trew, but there had been “systemic failure.” Also outside the court, Janice Peterkin, Basil Peterkin's daughter, called for legislation that would mean that the cases of those who had been arrested by jailed officers would automatically be reviewed.
The CCRC is now anxious that others who were framed by Ridgewell should contact them. Helen Pitcher, the chair of CCRC, said: “I urge anyone else who believes that they or a loved one, friend or acquaintance was a victim of a miscarriage of justice to contact the CCRC – particularly if DS Derek Ridgewell was involved.”
'An Appaling Vista'
But why do some disturbing cases take so long before they are finally resolved? Coming shortly is the republication, with new material, of Error of Judgement, the majestic book by the former Labour MP and minister, Chris Mullin, about the wrongful imprisonment of the Birmingham Six. He was mocked at the time for championing the Six’s cause – "Loony MP Backs Bomb Gang" was the Sun’s headline about his efforts – but battled on.
The establishment’s concern about a retrial for the men was epitomised in the notorious speech by Lord Denning in 1980 in which he said: “just consider the course of events if their action were to proceed… If the six men failed it would mean that much time and money and worry would have been expended by many people to no good purpose. If they won, it would mean that the police were guilty of perjury; that they were guilty of violence and threats; that the confessions were involuntary and improperly admitted in evidence; and that the convictions were erroneous… That was such an appalling vista that every sensible person would say, ‘It cannot be right that these actions should go any further’.”
While that fear of an “appalling vista” was certainly one reason why many cases were shuffled away or forgotten, another was a reluctance to acknowledge evidence of a wrongful conviction. One case that took more than twenty years before justice was served was a double murder case for which two north Londoners, Reg Dudley and Bobby Maynard, were convicted at the Old Bailey in 1977.
It was not until 2002 that they were cleared and both were rightly awarded major compensation for their wrongful imprisonment. Their case had caused concern years earlier and the man who helped convict them as chief prosecution witness was admitting as early as 1980 that he had fabricated his evidence, yet it was another two decades before he was offered immunity from prosecution for perjury so that he could finally tell the truth. In the meantime, Maynard and Dudley were shamefully left to linger behind bars. While many were aware of the discrepancies in the case, the papers that could have helped to clear the men were “lost”. The case finally made it to the court of appeal only after it had been reinvestigated by the CCRC, the body that was set up in the 1990s to investigate such claims.
As that impressive television series, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, has now shown and the work in the past of the BBC’s Rough Justice and Channel 4’s Trial and Error programmes often demonstrated, detailed and well-researched publicity on television can also play a major role in overturning miscarriages of justice.
Sadly, both Rough Justice and Trial and Error now no longer exist, victims of a world in which reality TV is cheaper and easier than deeply researched investigations.
So will the Ridgewell saga now become a film and lead to yet more evidence of his villainy? Also in court for the Mehmet/Peterkin appeal was documentary film-maker, Jaimie D'Cruz, who has been researching the Ridgewell cases over the past year. Perhaps television companies now seeing the mighty effect of the ITV’s Mr Bates may start looking again at other serious long-term injustices and giving them the airtime they deserve.
While much has rightly been made of how long it took for the falsely convicted sub-postmasters to have their names cleared, an even older and equally disturbing miscarriage of justice found its way back to the court of appeal this very week on 18 January.
It was in 1977 that two British Rail workers, Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin, were jailed for stealing parcels from a goods depot in south London but it has taken more than four decades for this injustice to be addressed and in the meantime both men have died.
“We express our regret that so many years have passed before action was taken,” Lord Justice Holroyde told a packed Court 7, which included many of the relatives of the two men. “We cannot turn back the clock but we can and do quash the convictions.” Peterkin died in 1991 and Mehmet, from Covid, in 2021. The court heard that both had been deeply affected by their convictions; when Mehmet was robbed during his later work as a minicab driver he did not bother to report it to the police because he so distrusted them.
While there are many, many figures now being identified as responsible for the Post Office scandal, the man who was chiefly to blame for the framing of Mehmet and Peterkin, and at least a dozen other young men, has long been known. He is Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell of the British Transport police who died at the age of 37 in 1982 in Ford prison in Sussex where he was himself serving a seven year sentence for stealing mailbags and goods worth more than £364,000.
The Stockwell Six: A Half Century Struggle Against Systematic Police Corruption
Duncan Campbell looks back over the lives ruined by just one corrupt police officer and what the case reveals about Britain’s failing criminal justice system
Duncan Campbell
Described in court as “dishonest, corrupt and racist” by Henry Blaxland KC, representing the two families, Ridgewell was involved in a series of cases in the early 1970s in which young black men were falsely accused of “mugging” on the London underground and were convicted and jailed. Despite serious concerns about Ridgewell at the time, campaigns on behalf of the jailed men known as 'the Oval Four' and 'the Stockwell Six' and an exposé on BBC’s Nationwide television programme, he carried on regardless.
“What might have been expected…is the British Transport Police (BTP) might have conducted a thorough investigation into Detective Sergeant Ridgewell with the end result that he might have been dismissed,” Blaxland told the court. “What happened instead was that he was moved to a different section.” This was the department responsible for investigating mailbag theft where he duly joined up with two others with whom he cheerfully split the profits of stolen goods. Blaxland added that, although one might also have expected that the BTP would then have examined all the disputed cases in which Ridgewell was involved, nothing was done.
It was not until 2018 that one of Ridgewell’s victims, Steve Simmons, who had been arrested with two friends for stealing mailbags back in 1975, was cleared. Simmons, a businessman from Dorking in Surrey, and one of Ridgewell’s few white victims, was 62 when his conviction was quashed. At the time of their arrest they had been told by a duty solicitor that if they called the police liars, the judge would jail them for a long time. Despite the solicitor’s warnings, they pleaded not guilty but were all jailed. Simmons’s case was eventually investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and was the forerunner of a series of appeals by Ridgewell’s victims.
After Mehmet and Peterkin’s successful appeal, their relatives and legal team gathered outside the court to speak to the media and curious passers-by. “They were treated as crooks but the only real crooks were the police officers who fitted them up,” said their lawyer, Matt Foot, co-director of Appeal, the legal practice that tackles miscarriages of justice.
Also present in court and outside was Winston Trew, one of ‘the Oval Four’ , who were fitted up by Ridgewell in 1972. Trew has played a key role in exposing Ridgewell and has co-authored, with the former BTP detective superintendent Graham Satchwell, the book, Rot at the Core: The Serious Crimes of a Detective Sergeant, published in 2021, which explains how Ridgewell was able to get away with his fit-ups for so long. “There was enough evidence to sack Ridgewell in 1973,” said Trew, but there had been “systemic failure.” Also outside the court, Janice Peterkin, Basil Peterkin's daughter, called for legislation that would mean that the cases of those who had been arrested by jailed officers would automatically be reviewed.
The CCRC is now anxious that others who were framed by Ridgewell should contact them. Helen Pitcher, the chair of CCRC, said: “I urge anyone else who believes that they or a loved one, friend or acquaintance was a victim of a miscarriage of justice to contact the CCRC – particularly if DS Derek Ridgewell was involved.”
Police Corruption: A Half-Century Wait for Justice
Duncan Campbell on another victim of a corrupt police sergeant who framed young black men in the 1970s
Duncan Campbell
'An Appaling Vista'
But why do some disturbing cases take so long before they are finally resolved? Coming shortly is the republication, with new material, of Error of Judgement, the majestic book by the former Labour MP and minister, Chris Mullin, about the wrongful imprisonment of the Birmingham Six. He was mocked at the time for championing the Six’s cause – "Loony MP Backs Bomb Gang" was the Sun’s headline about his efforts – but battled on.
The establishment’s concern about a retrial for the men was epitomised in the notorious speech by Lord Denning in 1980 in which he said: “just consider the course of events if their action were to proceed… If the six men failed it would mean that much time and money and worry would have been expended by many people to no good purpose. If they won, it would mean that the police were guilty of perjury; that they were guilty of violence and threats; that the confessions were involuntary and improperly admitted in evidence; and that the convictions were erroneous… That was such an appalling vista that every sensible person would say, ‘It cannot be right that these actions should go any further’.”
While that fear of an “appalling vista” was certainly one reason why many cases were shuffled away or forgotten, another was a reluctance to acknowledge evidence of a wrongful conviction. One case that took more than twenty years before justice was served was a double murder case for which two north Londoners, Reg Dudley and Bobby Maynard, were convicted at the Old Bailey in 1977.
It was not until 2002 that they were cleared and both were rightly awarded major compensation for their wrongful imprisonment. Their case had caused concern years earlier and the man who helped convict them as chief prosecution witness was admitting as early as 1980 that he had fabricated his evidence, yet it was another two decades before he was offered immunity from prosecution for perjury so that he could finally tell the truth. In the meantime, Maynard and Dudley were shamefully left to linger behind bars. While many were aware of the discrepancies in the case, the papers that could have helped to clear the men were “lost”. The case finally made it to the court of appeal only after it had been reinvestigated by the CCRC, the body that was set up in the 1990s to investigate such claims.
As that impressive television series, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, has now shown and the work in the past of the BBC’s Rough Justice and Channel 4’s Trial and Error programmes often demonstrated, detailed and well-researched publicity on television can also play a major role in overturning miscarriages of justice.
Sadly, both Rough Justice and Trial and Error now no longer exist, victims of a world in which reality TV is cheaper and easier than deeply researched investigations.
So will the Ridgewell saga now become a film and lead to yet more evidence of his villainy? Also in court for the Mehmet/Peterkin appeal was documentary film-maker, Jaimie D'Cruz, who has been researching the Ridgewell cases over the past year. Perhaps television companies now seeing the mighty effect of the ITV’s Mr Bates may start looking again at other serious long-term injustices and giving them the airtime they deserve.
A Culture of Failing to Protect Women: The Shocking Stories of Police Misconduct
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Zara (not her real name) was still in the hospital when she realised the police would be coming. She had just been run over by a former partner as part of a domestic dispute.
Everything seemed normal when she went with the police to the station to discuss the incident back in June 2020. Two weeks later, while out with a friend at Nando’s, she got a call with no caller ID. It was her arresting officer.
“He said ‘I’m just calling to see how your leg is’. That was his opening line,” she told Byline Times.
The conversation soon became uncomfortable. He started flirting with her, asking if she wanted to share her Nando's meal with him, and saying that "in my line of work there’s not a lot of people you want to meet again" and that it was "nice to look at" her body while she was in custody.
“It felt really awkward and I just wanted the call to end,” she said. “His last words were ‘given the chance, I would have loved to have conducted the search on you in custody’ – then I hung up.”
“The officer in question was the one that checked me in at the station," she added. "He was well aware that I had mental health issues and was a victim of domestic violence."
A statement by the Metropolitan Police at the time acknowledged that the officer’s “flirtatious conversation” with Zara was “wholly inappropriate and fell far below the standards expected of a police officer”. It said sanctions had been applied to the officer.
But Zara is still angry about how it was handled.
“When I hung up, I drove to the police station and said I wanted to report a police officer, which they all laughed at and tried to shoo me away,” she recalled. “I genuinely do believe if I didn't have a recording of him, no one would have investigated, they wouldn’t have checked to see if he actually gone and accessed my number. I doubt anyone would have either taken a statement off me that day.”
The police officer only ended up receiving a formal warning.
“They said that because he'd started the conversation with 'how's your leg?’ – even though he was off-duty in his own car and had to access the database to get my number and use it on his personal phone – it was for police purposes,” Zara said. “He was basically given a slap on the wrist.
“He is still a police officer in Croydon. The other day and we were side-by-side in traffic. I think the police are like a gang, there’s no other word for it. They’re so backhanded in everything they do, and they really do just stick up for their own.”
Unfortunately, Zara is far from alone.
Despite more than 6,700 reports of spiking in England and Wales, the Government’s new initiatives fall short of meaningful action, writes Reclaim These Streets co-founder Jamie Klingler
Jamie Klingler
'You Lose Any Faith You Have in the System’
The crisis in UK policing has only been growing in prominence in recent months and years after a string of criminal officers have come to light.
The most high-profile of these have included serial Met Police officer rapist David Carrick; and Wayne Couzens, who used his police ID and handcuffs during the kidnap and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard in 2021.
In recent months, Byline Times itself has revealed that police forces have been subject to record levels of misconduct complaints, that the police watchdog is investigating fewer than 1% of complaints, and that almost one in four reasons given for police officer dismissals for serious misconduct last year were for sexual offences.
At some police forces in the country, the number of annual complaint allegations actually heavily outnumber the number of officers serving.
This newspaper has been speaking to victims of police misconduct like Zara to share their all too first-hand stories of the kind of abuses happening up and down the country.
The husband of Karen (not her real name) turned abusive not long after their child was born. He had serious health issues and she says him and his family took issue with how much time she was spending with their son in the hospital.
“My husband then became more aggressive at the time, and started to try and throw me and my son out," she told Byline Times. "And this was coming up to like the middle of the night. He then hits me and tried to throw me down the stairs. I tried to do what I could to get through the night.”
The next day she called her family, and her sister called the police to give Karen safe escort from the home.
“I think it was about a month or two later that my then husband happened to say 'we know what you said to the police. We know your sister made the phone call’,” she recalled. “And that's when we started thinking: how would they have known that she called the police? No one would have known that as that wasn’t said to anybody.”
It was then that they remembered that her then brother-in-law worked for West Midlands Police and she made an urgent complaint to the police. It took the force a year to finalise the complaint investigation. In the final hearing, he was issued with a final written warning.
“I was thinking the whole time: are they going to come here? How much more do they know? And I was living with my sister who made the phone call. So then she got paranoid because they had access to her information, because her address was logged,” Karen said.
“You also lose any faith and trust that you have in the police –I mean this was domestic abuse and this happened. You lose any faith you have in the system and the people who should be there to protect you. It should be that if you breach confidentiality like this, you’re not a police officer any more."
A West Midlands Police spokesperson said the force acknowledged the facts of the case and the final written warning outcome handed to the officer. They confirmed he is still employed.
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'It Felt Like they Enjoyed Doing What They Did'
Erin Dawson was a student at Salford University when she went to a protest in central Manchester over the Government’s proposed increasing of police powers to break up protests. It was just a couple of weeks after a vigil in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard was violently dispersed by the Met in south London.
After a few hours, the crowd was ordered to disperse by police, under what they called “the power of being nice”. Soon after, riot police arrived to disperse the protest.
As she was being dragged across the square, Erin's jeans were dragged down and her t-shirt was pulled up, leaving her naked except for her underwear.
She was eventually issued a fixed penalty noticed and released from custody.
“I was at the police station until midnight and, when I was let out, I saw photos of when I was up being dragged along the floor – it was worse than I realised,” she told Byline Times. “That sort of set me off again. It flung me into quite a bit of chaos for the few months after. It took me six months to even write up what I thought about it all.”
In a statement after the event, Greater Manchester Police said that “no misconduct" had been identified among its officers, but that it “apologised for any distress caused”.
In the end, the penalty notice she was issued with was overturned – suggesting the entire police intervention was unjustified. Erin was never directly told by the police that they had decided the penalty notice was wrong – she only found out when she the fine was refunded.
After Erin was put in touch with a lawyer who threatened to take the police to court, Greater Manchester Police offered her compensation of £5,000.
The incident seriously impacted her mental health for months. Even years later, it casts a big shadow.
“There's been a police car parked on the car on the road nearby,” she said. "And it still makes me quite anxious to see that car being parked there because it felt like they enjoyed doing what they did to me.”
Matthew McConville, a lawyer at Irvings Law working in its specialist ‘actions against the police’ wing, represented several of the victims featured in this article.
He told this newspaper: “The public have the right to expect integrity in the police service and should have confidence in police officers to act in a professional manner. Unfortunately, there has been a definite shortfall in the service that these clients have received and there are grave concerns over how police forces deal with them as a whole too."
The sad reality is that a recurring theme with every one of those Byline Times spoke to was that the experience had left them with a complete lack of faith in the police.
‘Stopping Male Violence Must Focus on Men: Why the Government’s New Spiking Measures Continue to Fail Women’
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In the 12 months to April 2023, police had 6,732 reports of spiking in England and Wales, and charged four people. Not 4%. Four people.
The new spiking initiatives that the Government announced this week are paltry.
The measures – which include “research into self-testing kits, more training for door staff and better education for young people, to raise awareness about the threat” – will not help increase charging and arrests of perpetrators.
A club having a test kit to see if you were spiked doesn’t identify the predator. It’s not even preventative. Ministers aren’t making spiking a specific crime that police can charge.
What we will see is a low-level roll-out to pubs, clubs and restaurants to give them some spiking kits. A couple of hundred venues will be dodged by perpetrators, when there are thousands potentially affected.
When the Government’s strategies addressing male violence against women aren’t directed at men they are part of the problem. Predators aren’t afraid to spike women, because they are almost guaranteed not to get caught – that’s what needs fixing, not women testing their drinks.
Our safety should be a priority to the Government and police but, once again, they are starkly demonstrating that our lives are not worth prioritising.
All of these half measures make no demonstrable difference to women’s safety but allow politicians to pretend they care about women’s safety.
So often, when we talk about spiking, we only talk about consequences and how to protect ourselves – not about the men that are drugging and raping us. This is on them to stop, not me.
If our standing on a soap box solved the violence against us, it would have been solved a long time ago.
EXCLUSIVE
Revealed: Police Forces Subject to Record Misconduct Complaints Amid Officer Abuse Scandals
The time taken by investigators to look into serious allegations against police officers has tripled in recent years, Andrew Kersley reveals
Andrew Kersley
Seeing is Not Believing
None of these measures matter when police do not believe us when we report our attackers.
There is a 1.7% conviction rate for rape. On a collective level, checking to see if our drink was drugged is not going to make us substantively safer or more believed by authorities.
The former Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police reportedly told women at the helm of Operation Soteria – in a meeting about why the rape conviction rate is so low – that the “bulk” of rape is “regretful sex”.
Is a kit proving you were drugged going to make police speak to us like we are human? That’s how low the bar is.
In the largest study of its kind of rape and sexual assault victims with experience of reporting their attacks, the women said they wanted to be treated like they are human. That simply isn’t happening.
We aren’t believed. We are told we would make bad witnesses. That it is our word against theirs. That we have to give the police our phones. That our therapy sessions could be used against us.
Part of the amazing work of Operation Soteria – a research and change programme that aims to transform the way police forces investigate rape and serious sexual offences – is shifting the focus of rape prosecutions from the victim to the man responsible. How this is a new and novel approach is infuriating, but it is desperately needed.
Missing the Point
Three years ago, I gave my first lecture to the UK Centre for Events Management Students at Leeds Beckett University. As a result, the students did a major piece of work around women’s impact on the night-time economy in Leeds and what needed to be done to address their safety concerns.
The students I spoke to talked about it as a horrible rite of passage – about using hair scrunchies to cover their drinks, of only drinking out of bottles to keep their thumbs over the tops, and mostly about being on watch for each other.
None spoke about RSE lessons talking about why men think they are entitled to our attention and consent.
We know that misogyny in the police makes us hesitant to report. As women, we are just grateful for getting home in one piece. But we often don’t consider why drugs to spike us are so readily available on college campuses. Or how we go after the men doing the drugging and raping.
Is the distribution of testing kits just there to create a sense of vindication when we testify about being spiked? Half the student bars in Leeds are run by students or recent graduates. Are we really making them responsible for a woman if she is spiked? Are they meant to get her home?
A big part of being spiked is also not being conscious or able to take care of yourself. How are you meant to go and ask for a manager who then is digging around in a back office for a kit while you are passed out in a puddle in the ladies’ room?
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Half Measures
During one of my lectures I brought up the example of Ask Angela: posters on the back of pub doors informing women that if they are on a date and feel unsafe “ask for Angela” at the bar and the team will swoop into action to make sure you are protected.
Any cursory ask-around will show you it is not part of any meaningful training and most of the people behind the bar, although well-meaning, would not have the first clue how to help a distressed woman in front of them asking for Angela.
One of the students asked for Angela in a number of Leeds pubs and exactly no staff responded in the way we are told they are meant to. Us getting home alive and safe isn’t on the barmaid.
These new measures don’t actually make it clear that spiking is illegal or set out the custodial penalties for spiking. I am tired of measures that put the onus of responsibility 'not to get drugged' back on to the victims – instead of dealing with the men we aren’t safe around.
A reminder: four people are charged a year for spiking. Yet, every young woman at Leeds Beckett I spoke to said they had been spiked, some multiple times.
Women will continue to employ strategies to keep ourselves safe and alive, and look out for our friends. And we will continue to live with a pervasive fear, knowing that we have to try to keep ourselves alive because the police and government certainly aren’t going to do it for us.
Men need to stop drugging, raping and killing us. Any strategies around stopping male violence against women need to focus on men. Not me.
Getting Away with Murder? What Harry’s Win Against the Mirror Means for Murdoch and the Mail
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Hidden in today's voluminous High Court judgment of the case of Prince Harry against Mirror Group Newspapers is a finding which breaks open what Gordon Brown called the "criminal media nexus" of corrupt cops, tabloid journalists and private investigators and the "dark arts" that came to dominate the British press.
The evidence of one important witness, Derek Haslam, will be key to cases against the Murdoch and Mail newspapers due for trial next year.
Derek Haslam, a former Met detective, was tasked to go undercover in 1997 for the Met’s internal ‘Ghost Squad’ inquiry into police corruption to investigate the unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who many believed had discovered a major story of police corruption he was pitching to newspapers before being axed to death in the South London pub car park.
Haslam’s target was Daniel Morgan’s old private detective agency, Southern Investigations, and the two men there originally arrested on suspicion of involvement in his murder: the firm’s co-founder Jonathan Rees and a former Met Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery.
Gary Jones once worked for the News of the World and the Daily Mirror. Today he edits the Daily Express. Will he figure in the report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel, out next week? Brian Cathcart considers the evidence
Brian Cathcart
The Mirror and the Daniel Morgan Murder Suspects
Justice Fancourt's ruling in the high Court lays out Haslam's evidence.
"Mr Derek Haslam, who operated as an undercover surveillance officer, was instructed to watch Jonathan Rees (the joint owner and operator of Southern Investigations, with Sid Fillery) with regard to activities with corrupt police officers and an investigation into the unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan.
"Mr Haslam said that Rees boasted of obtaining information by phone tapping and computer and phone hacking, and admitted to him that he had supplied phone hacked information to MGN. He said that Rees had employed BT engineers to tap landlines. However, it is clear from Mr Haslam’s evidence that the majority of Rees’s information was obtained by other illegal means.
"Mr Haslam said that Rees frequently met with journalists and corrupt police officers in pubs, bragged about working for the Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, and that he had been introduced by Rees to Gary Jones of the Mirror and Doug Kempster of the Sunday Mirror.
"He said that both were clearly good customers of Rees and that he spoke about them often, and in particular boasted about having supplied information about Prince Michael of Kent’s bank account, which was unlawfully obtained.
"In cross examination, Mr Haslam was able to recall in which pubs meetings with Rees and Fillery would take place, and said that Jones and Kempster would come on occasions. On occasions there was a bank manager called Rob there, as well as policemen, and he was known as 'Rob the Bank'."
The Gary Jones mentioned is currently the editor of the Express newspaper. He was a crime reporter at News of the World in the 90s when the Sunday tabloid was under the editorship of Piers Morgan and the main employer of Rees and Fillery. When Morgan moved to the Mirror group he took Gary Jones with him.
But by then the police had installed a bug in the premises of the private detective agency. On 6 July 1999, when Jones was a senior reporter at the Daily Mirror, he was caught on tape querying invoices totalling £16,991 that Southern Investigations had billed the Mirror.
"This is tiresome, fucking tiresome," Ress told Jones. "We are not going to put the numbers in there because what we are doing is illegal, isn’t it? I don’t want people coming in and nicking us for a criminal offence, you know."
Today's judgment, among other things, vindicates this suppressed evidence. Justice Fancourt accepted Haslam's evidence in broad terms and called his testimony "clear and compelling".
But this is only the beginning of the story because Haslam's evidence is also a key testimony in more trials due next year brought by several claimants including Prince Harry, Elton John and Hugh Grant over unlawful information gathering against the Mail group and Murdoch’s publications.
And this opens up the whole issue of police and press corruption around the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Daniel Morgan
‘Reckless to the Point of Madness’: How the Murdoch Empire Hacked British Politics
Journalist Nick Davies talks to Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber in Prospect magazine’s ‘Media Confidential’ podcast about the new revelations from the settlement by News Group Newspapers
Nick Davies
The Murdoch Connection to Corrupt Policing
It’s no coincidence that two of the most notorious murders of the last half-century occurred within a few miles of each other in south-east London: the assassination of private investigator Daniel Morgan in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham in 1987, and the racist murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence in Eltham in 1993.
Back in the 1980s and 90s, the proximity between those corrupt police officers and the national press was so extensive the area was known as the ‘News of the World Regional Crime Squad’. The senior luminary to come out of the area, Commander Ray Adams, was described at the time as Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Yard Man’ (he went on to become deputy head of security for NDS – the global security arm for Murdoch’s News Corp).
In the meantime, over the past three decades, the murders of Daniel Morgan and Stephen Lawrence were subject to a dozen or more partial and problematic police investigations.
The 1998 Macpherson Inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s murder concluded that the Metropolitan Police was guilty of “institutional racism”. An independent review by Mark Ellison KC in 2014 – around the phone-hacking scandal – established police corruption was a factor too.
Read the full story
To get the full story of the Criminal Media Nexus, with new information and exclusive to print articles by Jake Arnott, Duncan Campbell and Dan Evans, buy the current edition of Byline Times, onsale now
Similarly, the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel Inquiry led by Baroness O’Loan concluded in 2021 that the UK’s largest police force suffered from “institutional corruption”.
The News of the World was the main customer for Southern Investigations for almost 20 years, and Rees and Fillery trained and supported its star reporter, Mazher Mahmood. As he went undercover for nine years, Haslam reported back to his ‘handlers’ about the array of unlawful information gathering services available to Rees and Fillery: moonlighting police covert entry teams for break-ins, a BT engineer to tap phone lines, a bank employee to access confidential financial statements.
“We can get the Queen’s medical records,” Haslam recalls Rees once boasting. But most disturbing of all was the ready access to former or serving Met officers who could be bought off for unlawful information.
Haslam's reports about unlawful news gathering and the probe in the premises of Southern Investigations caused a stir in the Met. Commander Bob Quick drew up a secret intelligence report detailing 46 'media crimes' and recommending the arrest of two News of the World journalists, Alex Marunchak and Mazher Mahmood, and Doug Kempster from the Mirror.
But Quick's senior officers in the Met did nothing about the report. Indeed several of them went on to accept well-paid columns in Murdoch's newspapers.
Witness statements on behalf of the claimants against Associated News plunge us straight back into what Gordon Brown once described as the ‘criminal media nexus’
Peter Jukes
The Mail and the Stephen Lawrence Murder
More startling and surprising is Haslam's evidence against ANL, the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. He says Rees and Fillery were major suppliers of unlawful information to the Mail titles who were interested in finding out if Doreen Lawrence and her campaign for justice had been “infiltrated by left-wing groups”.
Again the major source of for Southern Investigation's stories were corrupt cops. Among the dozens of officers in regular communication during Rees and Fillery in their heyday were two men who played an important role in the original Stephen Lawrence murder investigation: Commander Ray Adams and his bagman DC John (OJ) Davidson. Having left the force both became, in Haslam’s words, “security consultants and important sub-contractors for Southern [Investigations]”
In the January print edition of Byline Times, Jake Arnott puts together some of the new evidence linking Davidson and Adams to both the Morgan and Lawrence cases. And former Guardian crime reporter Duncan Campbell and investigative journalist and whistleblower Dan Evans recollect the former Flying Squad detective – John Ross – who also “specialised in selling information to the Mail and other newspapers from corrupt, serving officers” and was also targeting Doreen Lawrence, according to Haslam.
Haslam has already been the subject of spurious attacks by Fleet Street journalists because his evidence doesn’t suit their industry or agenda. They would rather muddy the investigations into an infamous racist stabbing and an axe murder with low-level character assassinations and hatchet jobs against key witnesses.
This is a disservice to the present as well as recent history and shows so much of the British press is more intent on deceiving their readers rather than informing them. They are trying to get away with murder.
To get the full story, with exclusive to print articles by Jake Arnott, Duncan Campbell and Dan Evans, buy the current edition of Byline Times, onsale now
Revealed: Police Officer Misconduct Hits Record High with Quarter of Offences Being Sexual
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Almost one in four of the reasons given for police officer dismissals for serious misconduct last year were for sexual offences, as the number of complaints over serious offences by officers hit a record high, Byline Times can reveal.
This month the College of Policing, a professional body for British police, published its annual ‘barred list’ – its list of police officers who have been dismissed for serious offences and are barred from rejoining the police.
Byline Times found that when you added together all the sexual offences listed as 'categories for dismissal’ (including offences like abuse of position for sexual purpose, grooming and rape), it added up to 115 or 22% of all the reasons listed.
The number of reasons listed outnumbered the total number of barred officers (394) as they could be barred for multiple reasons.
The revelations reflect concerns over criminal officers that have been growing after several high profile officers have been arrested for similar crimes in recent years.
In 2021, serving Met police police officer, Wayne Couzens, used his police ID and handcuffs to kidnap, rape and murder 33-year-old Sarah Everard.
In February this year another serving Met officer, David Carrick, was jailed for life after he raped, assaulted and inflicted “irretrievable destruction” on at least a dozen women. In the end, he was convicted for 85 serious offences, including 48 rapes.
The figure for serving officers also represented a significantly higher share of cases than the equivalent for police community support officers.
EXCLUSIVE
Revealed: Police Regulator Investigating Fewer Than 1% of All Complaints
Shockingly few complaints are being properly investigated by either police forces or the independent regulator
Andrew Kersley
A past investigation found that nearly dozens of officers in England and Wales have faced disciplinary action for inappropriate sexual relationships or sexual contact with victims, with some still remaining in the job afterwards.
The most recent ‘barred list’ figures also showed a huge spike in serious offences among officers. The 394 names added to the ‘barred list’ this year was a record high and a 32% spike on the year before – the biggest rise recorded at any point in the last five years.
Police campaigners previously told Byline Times that a failure to fully investigate almost nine in 10 complaints about police forces was risking a repeat of the Sarah Everard murder.
Police forces logged a record 81,142 complaints last year – some forces now are actually recording more complaint allegations than they have staff members.
But only a small minority are ever investigated by forces themselves – who are tasked with policing their own conduct. Just 0.5% of complaints are ever looked into by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is referred only the most serious cases by police forces.
“Public trust is essential and forces across the country are committed to rooting out officers and police staff who damage that trust,” added the College of Policing’s chief superintendent Andy Walker.
“We have strengthened vetting; set high standards in recruitment; and continue to clamp down on unacceptable conduct so that the public can have confidence in the many hard-working, dedicated officers who come to work to keep them safe.”
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Chief constable Craig Guildford, National Police Chiefs’ Council misconduct lead, told Byline Times: “All police forces are continually rooting out abusers and corrupt individuals. That commitment is shared from chief constables through to our dedicated frontline.”
“Action is being taken and change is happening, but words from us are not enough. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary wrote to the Home Secretary earlier this year to note “undoubted” progress across forces on vetting, misconduct, and counter corruption practices.
“They also singled out improvements in the way intelligence is proactively gathered on officers of concern and noted more cases of gross misconduct are being identified.
“This is not only thanks to the proactive work of our investigators but the professionalism amongst the vast majority of our employees to challenge and report wrong doing.”
MP’s Sexual Assault Investigation Moved From Met Police Due to ‘Misogyny’ Fears
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An investigation into an allegation of serious sexual assault against MP Julian Knight was moved from the Metropolitan Police to a local force because the complainant believed it was “institutionally misogynistic” and “could not be trusted” to prosecute a serving Westminster politician, Byline Times can reveal.
This newspaper has seen emails detailing how the case was transferred to Essex Police in May following high-level discussions between the Conservative Chief Whip Simon Hart and Scotland Yard, after Knight’s alleged victim expressed her dissatisfaction with the Met to Hart.
The woman’s decision was further motivated by the Casey Review, which found the Met to be “institutionally misogynistic” and revealed that it could be employing more officers like Wayne Couzens – the Westminster-based armed officer who was jailed for life for the 2021 murder of Sarah Everard.
It has also emerged that Essex Police is now looking into multiple serious sexual offence allegations against former select committee chair Knight, who was interviewed by its officers for several hours.
A source close to the case told Byline Times: “The complainant thought her allegations against Julian were not being taken seriously by The Met. She felt officers assigned to the case were not competent and didn’t appear to know what they were doing.
“Given the Met had an armed Metropolitan Police officer working around Parliament who went on to kill a woman, and the Casey report said there might be others, she didn’t think it could be trusted to investigate her allegations.
“It is another example of how, yet again, the Metropolitan Police has let itself down and, more importantly, let down the women it’s meant to serve.”
Nazir Afzal, former Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England, said moving the case was unprecedented.
EXCLUSIVE
Senior police officers are ‘alarmed’ by former Home Secretary’s meetings with Fair Cop, which promotes nationalist ideology and has links to the Reclaim Party
Tom Latchem and Dan Evans
“It’s not uncommon for another police force to investigate allegations where there may be potential conflicts of interest or perceptions of bias because one of the suspects, alleged victims, or witnesses has some significant connection with the exporting force," he said. “But I can’t recall a situation where a case has been transferred because the culture has been misogynistic. What confidence does that give the thousands of other alleged victims whose cases haven’t been moved?”
Caroline Russell, leader of the Green Party in the London Assembly, said it was a “grim situation” when women don’t trust the Met to investigate serious sexual assault claims against politicians. “It shows just how much work is needed to rebuild the trust and confidence of Londoners in our police service,” she added.
Patsy Stevenson, who was awarded compensation from the Met over her treatment following a vigil for Sarah Everard, said she is "not surprised that women do not trust the Met" but that she is "scared because now there is nowhere to turn when things like this happen".
“Right now, I can’t see a way forward for the Met – apart from completely starting from scratch or defunding the police to put money into organisations that actually help,” she added.
'More Supportive and Communicative'
The Met confirmed last December that it was conducting an investigation into a single allegation of serious sexual assault against Julian Knight, then Conservative MP for Solihull, and the chair of the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
Knight had the party whip withdrawn after the inquiry was launched, but insisted he is “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever” and branded the move “wrong and unjustified”.
The force then announced in late March that it was "no longer proceeding with an investigation".
With the Conservative Party refusing to reinstate the whip, the following month Knight announced he would be resigning from the committee, and would not be standing as an MP in the next election.
Six days later, the BBC reported that four women had made complaints to parliamentary authorities about Knight since police dropped the investigation into him. It reported that the complaints are “thought to allege inappropriate comments and behaviour”.
In a statement, Knight said: "I am fully aware of the circumstances of the single complaint made against me to the Metropolitan Police and the motivations of those involved in making it. This baseless complaint was dismissed by the police without their even feeling the need to interview me, which they never did.
"I have not been made aware of any details of allegations supposedly made subsequently against me to any parliamentary authorities. Nor am I the subject of any investigation by Parliament's Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme. Should I become the subject of any such investigation, I will fully and publicly defend myself against any allegations.
"Meanwhile, it is deplorable that, despite the police decision, I remain the subject of what appears to be a smear campaign conducted through leaks, false innuendo and briefings."
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In May, the case was then handed over to Essex Police, which confirmed it was investigating a single allegation of serious sexual assault. It was not clear at the time why the case was referred. But Byline Times has learned that the complainant expressed her concerns about the Met to Conservative Chief Whip, Simon Hart.
He is understood to have personally intervened by making an appeal to high-ranking Scotland Yard officials that the case be referred elsewhere.
While a spokesman for Hart declined to comment while the investigation was ongoing, a source said: “It’s fair to say that Simon’s actions saved the complainant from pulling out and the case collapsing altogether. The case was transferred to a really well thought of department of Essex Police, which is led by someone who is highly-experienced in this area of investigating. Since the move, there is a feeling that Essex Police has been far more supportive and communicative.”
Essex Police confirmed to this newspaper that it is currently investigating multiple allegations against Knight. A spokesman said: “A man has been voluntarily interviewed in connection with an investigation into allegations of serious sexual assault. The investigation relates to alleged incidents outside of Essex which are non-recent. Our investigation is ongoing.”
The Metropolitan Police and Julian Knight MP were contacted for comment.
Revealed: Police Regulator Investigating Fewer Than 1% of All Complaints
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We are risking a repeat of the Sarah Everard murder, campaigners have warned, after Byline Times revealed that almost nine in 10 complaints about police forces are not formally investigated.
Sarah Everard, 33, was kidnapped, raped and murdered in March 2021 by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, leading to protests and a nationwide backlash.
In the time since, it has been revealed that chances to catch Couzens for other crimes and misconduct were missed in the days, months and years before the murder. Among other things, Couzens was investigated over indecent exposure claims as much as six years prior.
Despite receiving a record 81,142 complaints concerning 134,952 different allegations in 2022-2023, Byline Times has found that only 17,098 – or 12.6% – led to a formal ‘Schedule 3’ investigation.
Forty per cent of cases nationwide ended with police forces taking no further action.
At 14 of the 44 police forces in England and Wales examined, fewer than 3% of all complaint cases received led to a local investigation.
British police forces are largely self-regulating – handling any investigations into allegations of poor behaviour or misconduct themselves. The most serious cases of misbehaviour, misconduct and criminality, however, are handed to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to be investigated.
But of 6,083 cases referred by police forces to the IOPC, the regulator only independently investigated or pushed for a directed investigation in 478 cases – or equivalent to 8% of referrals and 0.5% of all complaints logged at police forces. Even fewer ended up with misconduct proceedings being initiated.
EXCLUSIVE
This newspaper has found officers in London have been zealous users of the system, which automatically scans the faces of passers-by and matches them against a watchlist
Sam Meadows
The actual figure is also likely to be lower as IOPC referrals data in annual reports also includes other statutory and criminal IOPC referrals, not just those from public complaints.
In March, the Government announced it would be conducting an independent review into the IOPC’s operations to assess its “governance, accountability, efficacy and efficiency”.
Habib Kadiri, executive director of policing accountability group StopWatch, told Byline Times: "The results of this investigation suggest that police forces are not able or willing to resolve the erroneous actions and behaviours of their own officers.
"At best, they are ill-equipped to deal with the volume of misconduct allegations they receive. At worst, forces’ systemic failure to take complaints seriously means that there is a high likelihood they will be doomed to repeat the scandals of the past (Child Q, Child X, Sarah Everard) in the years to come.”
The Everard case is not the only one in which chances to catch a criminal officer earlier were missed.
Serial rapist police officer David Carrick was the subject of a litany of criminal investigations and complaints in the more than the two decades leading up to his conviction in February for 85 serious offences, including 48 rapes.
In July, the IOPC announced that it would be using a “rarely-used power” to launch four different internal investigations to look at whether the Metropolitan Police mishandled multiple serious complaints it received about Carrick before his eventual conviction.
An IOPC spokesperson told Byline Times that "the most commonly recorded complaint type relates to police service delivery such as a lack of updates or delays in responses, rather than the more serious concerns around police misconduct”.
They added that the IOPC "only investigate the most serious and sensitive cases referred to us” and that as the police watchdog they are working with police forces to help them “improve how they handle complaints”.
Byline Times previously reported that complaint allegations against police officers skyrocketed by 24% last year compared to the year before.
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A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Government changed the definition of a police complaint in 2020 to ensure that any dissatisfaction, including misconduct, can be raised. By law, each complaint must be handled in a reasonable and proportionate manner and those who are unhappy with how their complaint has been handled can apply for a review which would be carried out independently by either the local Police and Crime Commissioner or IOPC.
“The vast majority of complaints about the police are about the delivery of duties and service and do not concern misconduct.”
A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “We remain committed to our current policing mission to lift the stones and rid policing of those not fit to wear the uniform, through strengthening vetting and misconduct investigations and delivering the long-term improvements to standards and culture we have promised.
“Police take all complaints from the public very seriously and aim to deal with them in a fair, balanced and objective way using statutory guidelines from the Independent Office for Police Conduct .
“Where a complaint is upheld and officers or staff are found to have not met the expected standards of professional behaviour, we ensure that appropriate action is taken and that they are dealt with fairly and directly.”
They added: “Action is being taken and change is happening, but words from us are not enough. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary wrote to the Home Secretary earlier this year to note 'undoubted' progress across forces on vetting, misconduct and counter corruption practices, and we are absolutely committed to driving further change.”