Yet another one. Met strip search a menstruating child, male officers involved in the search

Fuck!

Sod all the protocols, laws, adviice and guidelines.

Where is the humanity in any of that?

The boys? What do they think of themselves now? Has anyone told them what the upshot of their childish malice was?

The police officers? Have they had a rethink at all? Has anyone told them that they just acted in the same way as we were reading about officers in, say South Africa during apartheid? Or any of the other totalitarian regimes that we routinely condemn.

Has any adult stopped and said "Well, we seem to have forgotten that all the players here were kids and we should have acted quite differently"

Poor kid. I hope she gets enough support to sue the shit out of the Met, specific officers and the boys for making the malicious call in the first place. Lots of noise required to make sure something actually changes.

Humiliation in this form is a well used method of instilling fear to gain control.
I'm becoming increasingly scared of the police.

Yes. Not only should women stopped by a single policeman in public request a second one, if they're girls they shouldn't turn up to a police station when innocent of the crime!

FFS!

But was it not the girl harming herself (cutting with a sharp object) that triggered the search? Can you imagine if they’d waited and she or someone else had come to more harm?

Do I read it right? She and her friends had an argument with a boy/s. The boy/s called the police on the girls. The police obligingly turned up, took the girl (s) away, locked her up for 20 hours, did an abusive/illegal strip search.

She's never going out to argue against boys again. The boys will use the same tactic when other girls argue with them.

After more than 20 hours in custody, Olivia was discovered to be in possession of a sharpened stick which she used to self-harm, her mother said.

She'd hidden it in her bra.
Did her mother really want her shut up alone in a cell with her harming stick.
Covid was the problem too. Following the rules.

A strip search after 20 hours is nothing less than a sexual assualt. That poor child.

The police are a fucking disgrace.

Suicide in cells is a big big problem - especially so many inmates with mental health problems. Should there be a suicide then the police are given the blame (not the gov who don't provide adequate mental health care).
The way to stop suicides is to take away all sharp objects, belts etc.
I would guess that this might be why they strip searched her after finding the sharp object she had hidden.

Would you prefer people were locked up with their sharp objects??

This is just reprehensible behaviour of the metropolitan police. The procedures meant to protect people, let alone a child, in custody were not followed. The search should not have been conducted in view of officers of a different sex.

@fallfallfall

women of all ages conceal evidence in their vagina and rectums.

The child involved is not a 'woman' of any age.

This is so awful that I can't articulate it. That poor girl. She was failed in so many ways. Violently assaulted by the people who are supposed to protect us.

I hope she gets some bloody good therapy to help her come to terms with what happened. And hope the officers involved don't get a chance to do this to anyone else.

What an appalling incident .
Depressingly there's a campaign currently underway to completely remove the whole idea of "single sex" and the women's right to privacy from men. Only yesterday a senior barrister from a leading law firm was pontificating in court that there should be no such thing as single sex spaces - men must be allowed everywhere women are vulnerable if they so chose (the Allison Bailey case). The same opinion has been voiced on this board over the weekend by at least one poster.
Given how many forces are now dominated by Stonewall's ideology, presumably this is a logical development with men increasingly taking advantage of these situations.

Also quite possibly proof of the whole " wind them up til you have probable cause" thing.

Her words not good enough but the boys word is...

I wonder what the difference between them was🤔

@Whatwouldscullydo
Indeed, plus like I said earlier there is no legal reason for an AA or parent to be there but there is also no reason they can't. So you would think the LD may give them pause. In my own example I was an AA as part of my professional role. My professional role is very time pressued and we are not usually keen to do things that aren't statutory (the statutory stuff already fills your working day and more) but everybody I spoke to agreed my presence was a reasonable request and a good use of resources.

I have no doubt that it was back covering rather than genuine concern on the part of my local force but that's a good thing. It shows that they are aware of the need for accountability and that their powers can be questioned. Apparently the MET have no such concerns.

I mentioned thr LDs because surely that must have made things much harder fir the police. Which surely proves without a doubt that as it likely would have made her incredibly difficult to deal with ( understandably so) that this was nothing but a power play. If they had waited fir a parent/guardian/ appropriate adult it would have been easier fir them. So this cannot have been about necessity or procedure because they created a situation that was ten times nore difficult than it needed to be.

They certainly dont even seem to care that they have given themselves away to be sick mysoginistic bullies taking any opportunity to prove a point.

Doesnt matter if she has an LD, she's a child.

I used to be an Appropriate Adult. I was asked to be present at a strip search once. It was a 16 year old male under the care of the LA.

I attended and asked the young man did he want me there (aware that having a woman in her 30s there may actually be more upsetting than being with 2 male officers) he said he did but would prefer I not look. So I stood facing the corner while they searched him. I had to argue with the officers who wanted me to watch (PACE offered little guidance).

My understanding is that an Appropriate Adult isn't legally required for a strip search of a child however the police wanted it anyway and I was happy to do it to ensure the child was supported.

I'm no fan of my local police force but the way the MET behave is terrible. There are things they can do to make these processes more transparent.

fallfallfall clearly said this: strip searches are necessary but should be done following a specific protocol which is appropriate.

She is not justifying the way this strip search happened at all.

I missed in the article that it reported the accusing boys were white though.

Good god.

And no mention of any consequences to the boys who falsely accused her.

Given her LDs/disabilities surely it's even more vital an appropriate adult is present when dealing with her

I refuse to believe that men cutting off her clothes was literally the only option 🙄

Absolutely shocking

Wow, only someone who lacks the smallest amount of morality and compassion would think that strip searching a child without a parent present in the presence of several male officers is acceptable as she might be hiding a weapon up her vagina or rectum.

So, rather than linking to bloody Wikipedia to justify this assault on a minor by the Met, maybe you should be asking the question as to why the police were so quick to believe the claims of two (without a doubt} white males.

Bloody hell. Is it just me that finds that abhorrent? CHILDREN being strip searched by grown up adults.

Not just you.

Worth knowing too that strip searches are conducted on every prisoner entering prison, even after court appearances when they've left prison in secure transport to go there. This involves children and young people too. It's completely avoidable with technology but most prisons/young offenders institutes don't have the technology.

Given the level of trauma, including sexual trauma, experienced by this group of people, often in childhood (so complex trauma), this should be sorted out asap. However, once you're in custody, even police custody, your rights radically diminish. And nobody cares.

The cases raised with girl Q and this girl feature their periods. Their periods make it more humiliating due to social attitudes however, that's not the issue. Without their periods this would be just as horrific.

WTAF this makes my blood boil so much I want to scream. Surely before they can strip search a child their parent or guardian or someone advocating for the child should be there, why are these rules not in place. That poor girl, my heart breaks for her, she must have been so scared.

It’s fucking creepy as a grown adult man to want to watch a CHILD being strip searched. I deliberately use the word ‘want’ because the rules are very clear on this. I’m very much hoping that the family wins the lawsuit. I’m also very much hoping that those responsible for this will be prosecuted for assault but at the same time I think realistically this won’t happen.

Gail Hadfield Gardner, a lawyer who is representing the family in a civil case against the force, said rules had to be followed when searching minors. “...The strip-search needs to be done in front of same-sex staff only, not same-sex staff with the opposite sex onlooking,” she said.

The last part of this shows how the rules are apparently easily cynically manipulated. The question is WHY would adult males want to watch a female child be strip searched? What sort of man doesn't want to leave when a girl is restrained and has her underwear cut off leaving her naked on the floor? And what sort of system finds this acceptable that these men stay to watch. And that's assuming that the search was 100% necessary anyway. Which is an entirely other issue.

I've no doubt there's racism here but there's something perverted too.

And I'm going to wager that there are more children out there who were treated like this but will not be coming forward (or their parents won't) because if they try to bring a case it means involvement with the same criminal justice system. Plus the trauma isn't something they want to relive and the humiliation not something they want to be talking about to strangers.