Two Met Police officers committed gross misconduct in Child Q search, panel says

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.

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 while she was menstruating.

Their decision to strip search a 15-year-old at school on suspicion of a small amount of cannabis was completely disproportionate

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 on Thursday.

On Thursday 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”.

The officers are now waiting to hear if they will be sacked, or what other penalty they may face, in light of the findings.

Child Q felt “demeaned” and “physically violated” and 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.