Met Police officers who strip searched a black schoolgirl, 15, are SACKED

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.

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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.

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