A CHELSEA Police Sergeant is being investigated for gross misconduct after the forceful strip search of an intoxicated girl by four male police officers.
The officers, including a fifth female officer, searched the 22-year-old woman at Chelsea police station after she was arrested outside the Supper Club nightclub in west London in March 2011 on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. All charges were later dropped.
The IPCC found that her clothes had been removed by force and she was left naked in a cell for half an hour.
The search which was not recorded, was also carried out in a cell covered by CCTV, which meant that the images were broadcast to the station’s custody desk.
Police officers who strip-searched the clubber were found by the IPCC to have breached their standards of professional behaviour and have a case to answer for misconduct.
The woman complained about her treatment and an investigation was carried out by the Metropolitan Police Service’s department of professional standards. Unhappy with the force’s findings, the complainant then appealed to the IPCC.
An IPCC caseworker found that the search was carried out without adequate justification and in breach of the requirements set out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), which says that officers carrying out a strip search must be the same sex as the person being searched.
The officers believed the woman - who was described as intoxicated, distressed, and running in and out of a road when arrested – to be under the influence of drugs and likely to have substances hidden in her clothing. Non were found.
The IPCC has recommended that the Police Sergeant on duty should face a charge of gross misconduct over their failure to make any record of the strip search or to ensure it was carried out in accordance with PACE guidelines.
The IPCC has also told the MPS that five PCs should face misconduct proceedings for conducting the strip search in breach of several areas of PACE.
The IPCC also found that another PC had potentially affected the woman’s decision to seek independent legal advice by suggesting that she would be likely to leave the station sooner without it. It has been recommended by the IPCC that they face management action.
Another PC should also face management action over a failure to properly investigate the woman’s claim that her drink had been spiked at the nightclub.
IPCC Commissioner Derrick Campbell said: "This incident caused a great deal of distress to the victim. I find it difficult to understand why police officers think they have the right to strip a young woman of all her clothes, leaving her naked for half an hour and then expose her to being filmed. I am sure, like the complainant, the public will want to understand how this was allowed to happen. I look forward to the misconduct process getting the answers that are needed.”
A police spokesman said: "We agree with the recommendations of the IPCC and will be holding a gross misconduct hearing for the Sergeant involved in this incident in due course. The five officers involved in the search will now face misconduct proceedings and we are still reviewing the recommendations that the remaining two officers should face management action."
