From sex attacks to biting - the claims alleged against Met Police this year

Cases under investigation by one police force have involved sexual assaults, stalking of women, racism, and alcohol and drug abuse.

There were also a number of cases of violence and harassment under investigation, including one where a man allegedly bit a colleague, and another where a woman is said to have repeatedly sprayed her neighbour with a hose and washed dog facies and urine into the garden as part of a dispute.

All fairly standard alleged offences for a police force to investigate, but when you add in the alarming fact all the suspects were police officers, it takes on a whole new twist.

Officers from the scandal-hit Met Police to be exact.

From the start of this month to the end of December there have been about 34 misconduct cases listed, involving 42 officers.

Sir Mark Rowley's pledge to clean up the force has - as he said it would - made things look a whole lot worse, before they get better.

The push to root out bad apples followed a series of shocking scandals, including the kidnap rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, and serial police officer rapist David Carrick, coupled with damning reports such as the Casey Review published in March 2023.

The report published by Baroness Louise Casey concluded the force was “institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic” and attracted those wanting to abuse powers.

Its findings led to the pledge that has seen a surge in the number of misconduct cases being heard, including older cases that have been reviewed and newer incidents.

Express.co.uk research of the misconduct case listings for the force for October, November and December found five cases concerning alleged assaults on other officers or members of the public, mostly while off duty, and five cases of alleged excessive use of force while on duty.

One of the cases was of an officer alleged to have assaulted a colleague while they were off duty by biting him.

The case will he heard by a Met Police misconduct panel later this month over four days.

Another case, that concluded this month, was of a female detective sergeant, who was alleged to have repeatedly sprayed her dog's faces and urine into their next-door-neighbour's garden, and on a number of occasions, hosed the neighbours who complained.

The case was heard earlier this month and found the majority of the allegations proven.

The panel heard the officer had resigned before the investigation was completed but it concluded that had she remained a serving officer she would have received a final written warning for gross misconduct.

More alarmingly, are the high number of cases concerning allegations of a sexual nature.

Nine of the cases centre around allegations of harassing female colleagues, partners, ex partners or even members of the public with unwanted contact and inappropriate messages.

Three were allegations of actual sexual assault against colleagues or other woman.

In a fourth disturbing case, a male officer is alleged in August 2022, to have followed a woman into a nightclub toilet, to "try to engage in sexual activity with her."

The woman was deemed to be vulnerable due to her age and intoxication. It will also be alleged at the hearing in December that the PC, upon being ejected from the toilets, lied that she "was his girlfriend, when he had only met her that evening."

There were even two other cases where the harassment was so serious it was considered as stalking, with an officer in one of the cases alleged to have slashed a woman's tyres.

These autumn cases are no anomalies either as the number of sexual-related misconduct cases heard by the force has been consistent throughout the year.

It follows a record number of police officers being investigated for alleged misconduct at the Met last year.

Probes carried out at the force grew by 80 per cent to 1,051 from 584 investigations in 2022.

The force hailed it as the “strongest crackdown” since the 1970s. The number of investigations that led to full misconduct hearings grew by 29 per cent in 2023 to 134 cases from 104 held in 2022.

As of February this year, there were 377 officers awaiting gross misconduct hearings, with 42 per cent relating to violence against women and girls or sexual offences, while 13 per cent concern discrimination.

A Met Police spokeswoman said: “We continue to make significant progress to relentlessly identify and root out officers and staff who commit offences.”

Alison Lowe, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Deputy Lead on Transparency and Accountability, said: “Chief

Constables have committed to ridding their forces of those who are not fit to serve, and police and crime commissioners will continue, on behalf of the public, to hold them to account on that pledge.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “As the Home Secretary has previously said, society cannot function properly when trust in the police is eroded and officers at every level must play their part in improving standards.

“We are backing our police to get a grip on bad officers, making it easier to sack corrupt officers and those who fail vetting. In addition, we are supporting the police to conduct regular screening of all their officers, staff and volunteers to identify any individuals who require criminal or disciplinary investigation.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: "The Baroness Casey Review, which the Mayor called for, identified a number of areas which clearly needed urgent and immediate attention to improve performance, raise standards and reform the culture at the force.

"This has led to an increase in misconduct investigations and hearings with more officers and staff being dismissed at a higher rate.

"The Mayor will continue to hold the Met to account to ensure all the urgent reforms are delivered and will also continue to call on the Government to make it easier for the Met to remove rogue officers.”