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.
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.
The “traumatic” police search involved the removal of Child Q’s clothing, including her underwear, her bending over and having to expose intimate parts of her body, the police disciplinary panel heard.
Authorisation was not sought for the intimate search, which left Child Q feeling “demeaned” and “physically violated”.
An appropriate adult was not present, a key safeguard of a child’s rights, and the girl’s mother was not told of the situation.
On Thursday the panel ruled the actions of Pc Kristina Linge and Pc Rafal Szmydynski amounted to gross misconduct and they were dismissed without notice.
Pc Victoria Wray’s conduct amounted to misconduct and she was given a final written warning. She was a 24-year-old probationary officer at the time and arrived at the scene after the key decisions had been made.
Panel chairman Commander Jason Prins said: “There has been enormous harm to Child Q and significant harm to the community in trusting the police.”
He added “this is a very high harm case” and given the “extremely serious findings” made by the panel “the only appropriate outcome is dismissal without notice”.
Earlier he had described the incident as “a disastrous and negative interaction” between police and a black teenager, but said race had not been the reason why Child Q was treated so badly.
The search was “disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary”, and it was “humiliating” for the child and made her feel “degraded”.
Commander Prins said “this is a case where officers adopted a simplistic approach” to a sensitive matter and they did not follow the training they were given.
Authorisation was not sought and the situation “cried out for advice and input”, he added.
Child Q did not give evidence at the four-week hearing “because of the psychological effects that this strip search has had on her”, the panel heard.
Outrage over Child Q’s treatment led to protests outside Stoke Newington police station in north London, after a safeguarding review found she had arrived at school for a mock exam and was taken to the medical room to be strip searched while teachers remained outside.