Teen's strip search 'gross misconduct'

TWO Metropolitan Police officers committed gross misconduct during the “disproportionate” and “humiliating” strip search of a 15-year-old black girl at school, who was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis, a disciplinary hearing has found.

- HELEN WILLIAM

The girl, known as Child Q, was strip searched while she was on her period, by officers in Hackney, east London, on December 3 2020, after her school wrongly suspected her of carrying cannabis.

An appropriate adult was not present, a key safeguard of a child’s rights, and the child’s mother was not told of the situation.

The actions of Pc Kristina Linge and Pc Rafal Szmydynski amounted to gross misconduct, while the behaviour of Pc Victoria Wray amounted to misconduct, the police disciplinary hearing, sitting in south-east London, ruled yesterday.

Yesterday Commander Jason Prins, chairman of the misconduct panel, said race was not a factor in the way Child Q was treated, but the search was “disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary” and it was “humiliating” for the child and made her feel “degraded”.