Two Met officers dismissed over strip-search of black schoolgirl

Two police officers who were involved in the strip-search of a black teenager at her school have been dismissed after they were found to have committed gross misconduct.

- Ben Quinn

The search at a school in Hackney, east London, was "disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary" and made the girl, known as Child Q, feel degraded and humiliated, a panel concluded at the end of a four-week misconduct hearing.

But the panel, chaired by a senior police commander, found that race was not a factor in the police officers' decision to subject the 15-year-old to the search, and nor was it found that she was treated as an adult. A third officer was found to have committed a lesser offence of misconduct. Outrage over the schoolgirl's treatment led to protests outside Hackney town hall and a police station after a safeguarding review revealed details of the incident.

Amid suspicions on the part of school staff that she smelled of cannabis after arriving for a mock exam, she was taken to the medical room to be strip-searched while teachers remained outside. No cannabis was ever found.