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This case indicates errors in policing in regard to police powers and abuse of power. This serving met office abused his power in the horrific way! Kidnapping, raping and murdering Sarah Everard.

The idea that the police are trusted with public, protection and safety is diminished by such crimes. For an officer to commit such a heinous crime does not to much for public views on police and trusting them with crime prevention or public protection.

In this case the police systematically failed to take into consideration previous conduct of Wayne Couzens. Furthermore, raising valid questions around police recruitment.

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Wayne Couzens has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in jail after a judge said his crimes were as serious as a terrorist atrocity because he abused his powers as a police officer to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.

The former Metropolitan police officer used his warrant card and handcuffs to get Everard, 33, into his car as she walked home in south London at the height of Covid lockdown restrictions in March. The restrictions were his probable pretext for stopping her.

Couzens drove her to Kent before strangling her with his police belt and burning her body. Lord Justice Fulford told Couzens his crimes had damaged the victim's loved ones and wider society, shattering the Everard family, eroding faith in the police, betraying his wife and two children and stoking the fear women felt.

"You have very considerably added to the sense of insecurity that many have living in our cities, perhaps particularly women, when travelling by themselves and especially at night," he said.

What earned Couzens a whole-life tariff, said the judge, was the abuse of his position to commit his crimes, meaning the court would treat it as seriously as a murder carried out for a terrorist motive. The sentence means Couzens will die in jail.

"I have not the slightest doubt that the defendant used his position as a police officer to coerce her on a wholly false pretext into the car he had hired for this purpose. It is most likely that he suggested to Sarah Everard that she had breached the restrictions on movement that were being enforced during that stage of the pandemic," Fulford said.

"Sarah Everard was a wholly blameless victim of a grotesquely executed series of offences that culminated in her death and the disposal of her body."

The judge said Couzens spent a month travelling to London to research how best to commit his crimes and bought items to use ahead of time.

Fulford said: "There was significant planning and premeditation. The victim was abducted, there was the most serious sexual conduct, the defendant was responsible for significant mental and physical suffering which he inflicted on the victim before her death, and the defendant concealed and attempted to destroy Sarah Everard's body."

Couzens, wearing a navy blue suit and face mask, appeared shaky as he stood to hear his sentence, listening with head bowed and eyes closed. At the conclusion of Fulford's remarks, Couzens was taken down by two police officers.

Everard's family said: "Nothing can make things better, nothing can bring Sarah back, but knowing he will be imprisoned for ever brings some relief. Sarah lost her life needlessly and cruelly and all the years of life she had yet to enjoy were stolen from her. Wayne Couzens held a position of trust as a police officer and we are outraged and sickened that he abused this trust in order to lure Sarah to her death. The world is a safer place with him imprisoned.

"It is almost seven months since Sarah died and the pain of losing her is overwhelming. We miss her all the time. She was a beautiful young woman in looks and character and our lives are the poorer without her. We remember all the lovely things about Sarah - her compassion and kindness, her intelligence, her strong social conscience. But we especially like to remember her laughing and dancing and enjoying life. We hold her safe in our hearts."

Couzens, 48, joins a list of about 60 prisoners in England and Wales who are serving whole-life sentences. He pleaded guilty to his crimes but the judge said he showed "no genuine contrition".

Wayne Couzens. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

The sentencing guidelines for a whole-life order cover cases such as a double murder, murder and abduction of a child, and murder of a police officer. By giving the sentence to Couzens for a single murder, as his abuse of his powers and role as a police officer were integral to his crime, Fulford set a legal precedent.

The judge had studied the case of Thomas Mair, jailed for a whole-life term for killing the Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. He noted that Mair had not appealed against his sentence, the most severe that can be passed since the abolition of the death penalty.

Fulford said: "The police are in a unique position, which is essentially different from any other public servants. They have powers of coercion and control that are in an exceptional category."

He said police were expected to use these powers in the public interest, and anything less risked trust in law and order: "If that is undermined, one of the enduring safeguards of law and order in this country is inevitably jeopardised.

"In my judgment, the misuse of a police officer's role such as occurred in this case in order to kidnap, rape and murder a lone victim is of equal seriousness as a murder carried out for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.

"All of these situations attack different aspects of the fundamental underpinnings of our democratic way of life. It is this vital factor which in my view makes the seriousness of this case exceptionally high."

Couzens was sacked from the Met after pleading guilty.

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Sarah Everard murder: Wayne Couzens given whole-life sentence

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Wayne Couzens has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in jail after a judge said his crimes were as serious as a terrorist atrocity because he abused his powers as a police officer to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.

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Police reporting can undermine domestic violence victims, language analysis shows

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Police reporting can undermine domestic violence victims, language analysis shows

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https://theconversation.com/police-reporting-can-undermine-domestic-violence-victims-language-analysis-shows-170931

The article above talks about how police officers can be seen to victim blame against people who have reported crimes to them. A statement from the article talks about women needing to be streetwise about when they can be arrested and when they can’t be arrested. This would question the legitimacy of the police because it victim blames someone rather than helping victims which they are meant to. This would also stop people reporting issues to the police as they feel they are going to be blamed for what happened to them.

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As police officer Wayne Couzens was sentenced for the murder of Sarah Everard, North Yorkshire Police Commissioner Philip Allott said women "need to be streetwise about when they can be arrested and when they can't be arrested". Couzens had exploited his authority to falsely arrest Everard, yet Allot appeared to be informing women that it is their responsibility not to get raped and murdered by the police.

Allot's comments exemplify what Susannah Fish, former chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police, has called a "toxic culture of sexism" in policing. Fish said "victim-blaming" is "endemic" in the force and that women who report crimes face "repeated humiliation". They are expected, she said, to tell their stories "over and over again" and are made to worry that they won't be believed.

I believe this is a prevalent problem in cases of domestic abuse. In my work with Nick Lynn, a former UK domestic violence specialist officer, we analysed the language officers used when investigating 18 cases of domestic abuse. These were all reported to Devon and Cornwall police during one month in 2010. Every case was disposed of with a "simple caution", which means no criminal charges were brought.

We analysed what is known as the MG3 form - a document that summarises a case file. It is composed by the officer in charge of the case after the investigation has been conducted. The MG3 then goes to a colleague known as a gatekeeper. These are usually sergeants or higher ranked officers whose role is to cast a qualitative eye over the case before it is sent to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision.

We found patterns of victim-blaming in the language used by officers and gatekeepers in these documents. The intensity of verbs was downgraded as the process of reporting progressed, for example. And the grammatical constructions deployed could be seen as mitigating the suspect's role in the crime. Victims were, at times, presented as contributing to their own situation.

We believe that linguistic choices have the potential to nudge prosecutors towards a more lenient outcome and, in these cases, could have contributed to the decision to issue cautions rather than more severe sentences.

Telling whose story over and over?

In one of the cases, the victim's account is presented in the investigating officer's original notes as follows:

She had gone into the male's [her husband's] bedroom to see what he was doing and he became aggressive and threw the computer equipment at her ... which struck the female on the top of her leg.

But by the time the officer has written the incident up into an MG3 report, the suspect is no longer presented as "aggressive". Instead, he is described as "perhaps a little agitated as he was tired".

There are other differences in the MG3 version of events. The computer the suspect "throws" is presented as having "struck" the female in the original account, yet in the MG3 report, the suspect is reported to have "swung the computer around catching her on the leg".

The change means that in the MG3 account, there is less intention in the action. This is crucial since, for a crime of assault to stand, intentionality is one of the points to prove.

In this particular case, the way the gatekeeper used language in their response further diminishes the suspect's role, even blaming the victim by presenting the precursor to the abuse as an "argument" that merely "develops".

In interview D/P [detained person] admits that he was tired and agitated and was trying to sleep. An argument develops between himself and his wife resulting in him picking up the computer and swinging it towards his wife.

By being party to "an argument", the victim is presented as being at least equally responsible for her husband assaulting her. Note, in particular, the use of the term "resulting in", which strongly implies causation.

The assault itself has been almost written out of the report at this stage. The computer is not "thrown at" her but is instead described as "swinging towards". In other words, the focus of the action is not on its outcome ("struck") but its trajectory ("towards").

Attributing blame

Another case was written up in just seven sentences. Only three of these sentences relate the basic facts of the case. The remaining four are devoted to representing the perpetrator's testimony about the victim rather than vice versa:

He [suspect] states that they both suffer from mental health problems and are both alcoholics. They had both been drinking that evening. He also states that Ms [victim] is not taking her medicine and becoming increasingly paranoid and aggressive. He believes the relationship is over and is prepared to move back to [redacted] to dissolve the relationship.

The repetitive use of the word "both" (which is not linguistically necessary in these sentences) introduces and reinforces shared responsibility. By giving so much space to the perpetrator's views on the victim's state of mind, the victim is recast as the antagonist.

Conversely, the final sentence in the report casts the suspect in an empathetic light by reporting him as making a concession (in being "prepared to move") - essentially suggesting he is rectifying the situation by ending the relationship and therefore potentially implying no further action is needed.

In this particular case, the way the report is written is particularly surprising given that the police had arrived at the scene in time to witness the perpetrator "standing over the victim".

Between March 2019 and March 2020 in England and Wales (excluding Greater Manchester), there were 1,288,018 recorded incidents of domestic violence. Only 79,965 were escalated through to the Crown Prosecution Service.

It's worth considering why all the abusers in the cases we studied benefited from leniency when sentences were decided. Analysing how institutionally-mediated "retellings" can shape the way crimes are reported and interpreted suggests that minimising and sanitising domestic abuse crimes is part of that picture.

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Police reporting can undermine domestic violence victims, language analysis shows

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As police officer Wayne Couzens was sentenced for the murder of Sarah Everard, North Yorkshire Police Commissioner Philip Allott said women "need to be streetwise about when they can be arrested and when they can't be arrested".

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A Metropolitan Police armed officer who used his role to put fear into his victims was found guilty of r*pe and sexual offences against 12 women. David Carrick, 48, who met some victims through dating websites, pleaded guilty to 49 offences across two decades.

This caused the Met to apologise as he had previously to the attention of police over nine incidents, including r*pe allegations, between 2000 and 2021. Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met's lead for professionalism, said: "We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn't, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation”, thus questioning the legitimacy of the police. Carrick, would control what the women wore, what they ate, where they slept and even stopped some of the women from speaking to their own children.

He was finally stopped when one woman did decide to report him. In October 2021, following publicity about Metropolitan Police officer PC Wayne Couzens, she contacted police.

The police have been criticised for its macho culture, lack of diversity and command and control ethos. Few outsiders see training in action. Essentially, police train police, and any insight from scholarship and/or research, and even force performance or HMIC inspections, is generally kept at arms’ length from the training school preparations because there is no active mechanism to address these concerns from within.

Despite similar cases, such as that of the murder of Sarah Everard, calling for a movement towards psychological literature focusing on violence against women and girls (BPS, 2021), it is evident that this is not being acknowledged in the police training process. Additionally, women and girls are urged to take precautions to avoid the increased risk of being sexually assaulted, for example, by ensuring they do not drink too much, yet this still does not prevent all cases, as ultimately the police process when dealing with individuals who have committed a sexual offence, are flawed. Therefore despite the growing psychological literature surrounding violence against women and girls, this remains redundant as it is not being implemented into police practice.

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A Metropolitan Police armed officer who used his role to put fear into his victims has admitted dozens of rape and sexual offences against 12 women.

David Carrick, 48, who met some victims through dating websites, pleaded guilty to 49 offences across two decades.

The Met has apologised after it emerged he had come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.

A senior officer said his offending was "unprecedented in policing".

Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met's lead for professionalism, said: "We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn't, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation.

"We are truly sorry that being able to continue to use his role as a police officer may have prolonged the suffering of his victims.

"We know they felt unable to come forward sooner because he told them they would not be believed."

Carrick, who admitted 24 counts of rape, was suspended from duty when he was arrested in October 2021.

His offences spanned 2003 to 2020 and most took place in Hertfordshire, where he lived.

Carrick, from Stevenage, would control what the women wore, what they ate, where they slept and even stopped some of the women from speaking to their own children.

He was finally stopped when one woman did decide to report him. In October 2021, following publicity about disgraced Metropolitan Police officer PC Wayne Couzens, she contacted police.

Jaswant Narwal, chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Carrick held a role where he was trusted with the responsibility of protecting the public, but yet over 17 years, in his private life, he did the exact opposite.

"This is a man who relentlessly degraded, belittled and sexually assaulted and raped women.

"As time went on, the severity of his offending intensified as he became emboldened, thinking he would get away with it."

She said the "scale of the degradation Carrick subjected his victims to is unlike anything I've encountered in my 34 years with the Crown Prosecution Service".

Carrick, who served with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, met some victims through online dating sites such as Tinder and Badoo, and used his role as a police officer to gain their trust.

He admitted four counts of rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault relating to a 40-year-old woman in 2003, at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

It can now be reported that Carrick had already pleaded guilty to 43 charges, including 20 counts of rape, in December.

Carrick admitted raping nine women, some on multiple occasions over months or years, with many of those attacks involving violence that would have left them physically injured.

Speaking outside court, Det Ch Insp Iain Moor, from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: "The details of David Carrick's crimes are truly shocking.

"I suspect many will be appalled and sickened by his actions, but I hope the victims and the public more widely are reassured that no-one is above the law and the police service will relentlessly pursue those offenders who target women in this way."

He said he expected even more victims to come forward.

Carrick admitted to false imprisonment offences, having on a number of occasions forced one of his victims into a small cupboard under the stairs at his home.

Det Ch Insp Moor, the senior investigating officer, said: "I have seen bigger dog crates."

After Carrick's first guilty pleas, the Met stopped his pay and began an accelerated misconduct process, with a hearing due to take place on Tuesday.

Harriet Wistrich, director of campaign group the Centre for Women's Justice, said: "We have known for some time that there has been a culture of impunity for such offending by police officers.

"Recent reports show a woefully deficient vetting and misconduct system and a largely unchallenged culture of misogyny in some sections of the Met.

"That Carrick could have not only become a police officer but remain a serving officer for so long whilst he perpetrated these horrific crimes against women, is terrifying."

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he was "absolutely sickened and appalled" by Carrick's crimes.

He said "serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner".

In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer, the force publicly proclaimed its commitment to protecting women and launched an "action plan" to try to regain trust.

But it has now admitted its professional standards department made no attempt to check the full record of another officer accused of rape.

The prime minister's official spokesman said it was "an appalling case" and that Rishi Sunak's "thoughts are with all of [Carrick's] victims".

"There is no place in our police forces for officers who fall so seriously short of the acceptable standards of behaviour and are not fit to wear the uniform."

Sal Naseem, from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), said no opportunities to stop Carrick earlier had been identified by police so far.

Two retired Met officers who dealt with a 2002 allegation of assault and harassment against Carrick may have committed misconduct, but as they cannot face misconduct proceedings, the IOPC decided it was not in the public interest to take further action.

Carrick's full list of offences are:

24 counts of rape

nine counts of sexual assault

five counts of assault by penetration

three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour

three counts of false imprisonment

two counts of attempted rape

one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration

one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent

one count of indecent assault

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Met Police officer David Carrick admits to being serial rapist

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David Carrick admits 49 offences against 12 women, including multiple rapes, over two decades.

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https://news.sky.com/story/priti-patel-launches-inquiry-into-police-failings-following-the-murder-of-sarah-everard-by-serving-officer-12426525

In March 2021, 33-year old Sarah Everard was ‘kidnapped, r*ped and murdered’ by ‘serving’ Metropolitan police officer, Wayne Couzens. In order to commit this crime, Couzens abused his position of a police officer; he used his police-issued handcuffs, belt and staff ID to ‘arrest’ Sarah Everard for breaking COVID-19 restrictions. Following an investigation, Couzens was arrested and subsequently sentenced to a whole-life order.

This case was categorised as an example of ‘systemic failures’ within the policing service, in that there were previous allegations against Couzens, including indecent exposure, that were overlooked by his colleagues. Here, it is evident that Couzens’ actions called into question the legitimacy of the police, as his continued employment despite his previous misconduct ‘allowed’ him to commit this heinous crime through a status of power and police equipment. This led to a public inquiry, the Angiolini Inquiry, which aimed to look at Couzens’ previous behaviour and conduct prior to the crime, as well as any wider issues across policing, such as vetting practices, professional standards and discipline, and workplace behaviour.

Cases like this one have encouraged a movement within psychology towards a focus on violence against women and girls (BPS, 2021). Research has also criticised government responses to Sarah Everard’s death as ‘problematic’, unhelpful and likely to reinforce victim-blaming (Brighton, 2021; Rainbow, 2021). Therefore, psychologists may be able to address this issue by advocating for policy that engages with systemic violence and victim blaming experienced by female victims, with an aim to reduce female victimisation overall.

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Met Officer guilty of 🤬 against 12 women 

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Met Officer guilty of 🤬 against 12 women 

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https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6737016?fbclid=IwAR2rS34nQFdFKbWoXqBbYTPHZoISIdUFwuetvrClothK60Do50T2XhVEL_A

The above article constitues to many reasons the policing field can be deemed by individuals within the general public as not trustworthy. David Carrick, over the course of two decades has been found guilty of 49 (sexual) offences against 12 women, as well as false imprisonment. The idea that members of the protection services that are meant to be there to ensure safety can treat other humans in such a way instates fear into those who should be trusting of the services when in need.

Carricks actions could be attributed to his life story, Carrick was in the army in 1994, PTSD, alcohol misuse, and domestic abuse are common results in individuals who have been in the military (Head et al, 2016). The alcohol misuse and domestic abuse are common key points in Carricks life, where he has 5 times been reported for harrassment and domestic abuse allegations, and been kicked out of a nightclub for being too drunk, no further action was taken. The fact that no further action was taken by other fellow members of the police suggests even further that the police service are not taking care to hold their own accountable for such actions, so how can the public trust them to keep them safe, calling into question the liegiticamy of the police sector, specifically the metropolitan police.

Whilst clearly there were disturbances in Carrick's life, and appropriate psychological help could have have proposed support that may have helped Carrick to not act and hurt others as he had done, it is not certain exactly what happened in Carrick's earlier life and where exactly help would be necessary to start intervention for Carrick's obvious traumas.

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Critics say culture of misogyny within Metropolitan Police Service has helped shield sexual predators on force

Posted: February 06, 2023
Last Updated: February 09, 2023

Police officers patrol in London on Oct. 1, 2021. The case of David Carrick, a former Metropolitan Police officer who admitted to being a serial rapist and is set to be sentenced this week has thrown a spotlight on what some say is a culture of misogyny within the force. (Frank Augstein/The Associated Press)

The battered reputation of London's Metropolitan Police - the United Kingdom's largest and best known force - will be hard to ignore this week as one of its own receives sentencing for the rape and sexual abuse of 12 women over nearly two decades.

The now former Metropolitan Police constable, David Carrick, pleaded guilty to 49 offences including rape, sexual assault, coercive control and false imprisonment in a London court last month.

Almost as shocking, for many people, is how many red flags the Metropolitan Police - also known as Scotland Yard or the Met - either missed or ignored before Carrick was unmasked as a serial rapist.

In a January media release, the Met said that Carrick had come to the attention of several police forces nine times before October 2021. The release noted he had not been charged on any of those occasions.

WATCH | Former met police officer admits to being serial rapist:

An officer with London's Metropolitan Police force has admitted raping and sexually assaulting a dozen women over a 17-year period. David Carrick had served with Scotland Yard's parliamentary and diplomatic protection command. 2:59

"The police were receiving allegations about him being a domestic abuser and allegations of sexual assault and other misconduct by him," said Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor and founding director of the Centre for Women's Justice.

"And yet somehow he managed to kind of float through the system, float through vetting processes, be promoted, be allowed to have a firearm."

In the wake of Carrick's conviction last month, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley announced a review of more than 1,000 police officers and staff who have previously been the subject of domestic or sexual abuse complaints.

"I have tens of thousands of great men and women who really care about policing, but it's also obvious I have hundreds of people who shouldn't be here," he said in an interview with London media.

Culture of misogyny

With Carrick's conviction coming nearly two years after 33-year-old Sarah Everard was raped and murdered by Wayne Couzens, another Met police officer who pleaded guilty to the crime, trust in the police is in short supply.

"It just seems to be going lower and lower," said Parm Sandhu, a former chief superintendent with the Met. She says it's rare for someone like her - a woman of colour - to reach the upper ranks.

Parm Sandhu, a former chief superintendent with the Metropolitan Police, says that when she was on the force, misogynistic talk was dismissed as banter or locker-room talk and women police officers who complained would find themselves shut out. (Lily Martin/CBC )

Like others here, Sandhu believes a culture of misogyny at the Met has been allowed to grow, helping to shield sexual predators on the force.

"It's not one bad apple, it's not a couple of bad apples. There are numerous officers and they need to be taken care of. The system just needs to be cleansed."

Sandhu spent 30 years with the Met police, but says she was still bullied out.

It's not one bad apple, it's not a couple of bad apples. There are numerous officers and they need to be taken care of. The system just needs to be cleansed. - Parm Sandhu, former chief superintendent with the Metropolitan Police

Misogynistic talk was dismissed as banter or locker-room talk and women police officers who complained, she said, would find themselves shut out, left on their own when they called for back-up or suddenly the target of counter complaints.

Thirty years ago the murder of a Black teenager named Stephen Lawrence - and a bungled investigation by the Met police - eventually prompted a major public inquiry that pointed to failed leadership and institutional racism.

It was described as a watershed moment, but Sandhu says force leaders are still in denial.

"The police service should be saying right now, 'We are racist, we are sexist, we are misogynistic.' They're not. They're trying to batten down the hatches."

Concerns women won't seek help from police

Sandhu's biggest concern is that women will be deterred from reaching out to police when they need help.

"Is she going to hesitate picking up the phone? Is she going to think 'No, I'm not going to ask for help because I'm going to get one of those racist, sexist, misogynistic officers?' "

Dasha Dubovitskaya takes part in a martial arts class in south London last week. Since the murder of Sarah Everard by a Metropolitan police officer in 2021, she says she's no longer sure if she would feel safe reporting a crime to police. (Lily Martin/CBC)

It's a question Dasha Dubovitskaya says she takes much more seriously in the wake of the revelations at the Met.

"For the longest time I thought, 'Oh no, but really I can go to the police if there is an issue. I don't feel that way anymore.' "

She was taking part in a martial arts class in south London, where about half the students were women.

Dubovitskaya says if she saw a lone police officer walking toward her these days, she would walk away. Quickly.

That's because of Everard's murder. Couzens, now serving a life sentence for the crime, used his police badge to stop her as she walked home from a friend's house in March 2021.

Dash-cam footage from a passing bus caught him hand-cuffing Everard before putting her into the back of rental car to drive her to a location outside London, where he raped her and strangled her with his police duty belt, then burned her body.
WATCH | London police clash with vigil attendees:

Several people were detained during a vigil for a woman murdered in London. The case that has caused widespread outrage in Britain about women's safety. 1:00

Met officers broke up Everard vigil

The murder sparked an enormous wave of horror and outrage across the United Kingdom. But the image of the Metropolitan Police sank even lower when officers moved in to break up a vigil for Everard.

Police officials said the vigil was breaking COVID-19 rules banning large gatherings and that it had turned into an anti-police protest.

The next day, newspapers were covered with front-page images of police constables holding a number of women down and handcuffing them.

Patsy Stevenson is arrested by Metropolitan Police at a March 13, 2021, London vigil for Everard, who was murdered by Met police officer Wayne Couzens. (James Veysey/Shutterstock)

Patsy Stevenson was one of them. She's been campaigning for women's rights ever since.

"The past two years we've seen nothing happened," she said in an interview with CBC News. "We've seen a lot of empty promises, but I've not seen a change at all."

After her photo was splashed across the media, Stevenson says she found herself being trolled on a dating app by men wearing police uniforms.

"They said like, 'Oh, I'm an officer with handcuffs and no - not the fluffy kind,' and things like that."

Stevenson says that after she was photographed being held down by police at the vigil, she faced trolling on a dating app by men dressed in police uniforms. (Lily Martin/CBC)

Sandhu says she is "appalled" by the way Stevenson has been treated.

"Because she was an innocent woman who went to pay her respects. And then afterwards, the trolling, the abuse that she got on social media from police officers is just totally unacceptable."

More reports of disturbing behaviour by Met police

There have been several other reports of disturbing behaviour by Metropolitan Police in recent years.

One, released last spring by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, a public body responsible for overseeing complaints made against police in England and Wales, found bullying, discrimination, toxic masculinity, misogyny and sexual harassment among some officers working from London's Charing Cross police station.

"Clearly the issue just hasn't been dealt with," said Wistrich, with the Centre for Women's Justice, calling the current situation out of control.

"This is illustrative of how bad things have been allowed to get, that there are so many officers who have not been properly investigated."

Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor and the founding director of the Centre for Women's Justice in the U.K., says she wants to see accountability not just for officers who commit crimes, but for bystanders within the police force who have allowed misconduct to happen. (Lily Martin/CBC )

Carrick was actually accused of rape in the months not long after Couzens murdered Everard in March 2021. He was partially suspended, but allowed to return to work without further investigation when the woman who accused him withdrew co-operation from the investigation.

It was Couzens being sentenced to life in prison in September 2021 that eventually pulled the thread that would expose Carrick's crimes, with publicity surrounding Couzens reportedly giving hope to one of Carrick's victims that she could accuse a police officer and be believed.

More accountability needed, critics say

But critics say redemption for the Metropolitan force will be a long time coming.

Wistrich says the force must go beyond its current review of hundreds of potentially suspect officers.

"It's accountability not just of obviously the officers who committed crimes and so on, but it's accountability of those who have been bystanders who've seen what's going on and let it happen."

"I want action and I want it now," said Sandhu, who would like to see vetting processes for police officers handed to an independent body, not just for the Met but also for other forces in England and Wales.

In the meantime, the very real prospect remains that even fewer women will be inclined to report a rape or a sexual assault than they have in the past.

Five out of six women who are raped already don't report it, according to Rape Crisis, a charity working to end sexual abuse in England and Wales. Last April, the Home Affairs Committee reported that data from the year before until September 2021 showed just 1.3 per cent of recorded rape offences resulted in a charge or summons.

Danni O'Halloran, right, practices a martial arts move with Leah Gimpel during a class in south London last week. (Lily Martin/CBC)

"The question that came to my mind with this latest case of the man who was able to perpetrate that many crimes against women was how many people along the way covered that up for him," said Danni O'Halloran, one of the other women taking the martial arts class in south London.

"His crimes are terrible. But it's the institution that actively worked to cover up his misdeeds so consistently for such a long time. That is a problem with the system. It's not safe for women."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Evans is a correspondent based in the CBC News London bureau. A veteran conflict reporter, Evans has covered civil wars and strife in Angola, Chad and Sudan, as well as the myriad battlefields of the Middle East.

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Confidence in London police crumbles as Met officer who admitted to serial rapes awaits sentencing

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Posted: February 06, 2023 Last Updated: February 09, 2023 The battered reputation of London's Metropolitan Police - the United Kingdom's largest and best known force - will be hard to ignore this week as one of its own receives sentencing for the rape and sexual abuse of 12 women over nearly two decades.

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Nicola Bulley police have made THREE crucial errors says top murder detective

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Nicola Bulley police have made THREE crucial errors says top murder detective

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The police investigation into Nicola Bulley’s disappearance has been married by three crucial errors, according to a top murder detective. The mother-of-two vanished on January 27 while walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre, prompting a wide-scale search from the police. A top detective has added to the dissenting voices with regards to the police operation, criticising the fact that the area had not been cordoned off, as the location has turned into a “tasteless tourist spot”. If they are in possession of new facts, I would consider whether it might be time to inform the public rather than let the speculation continue. "There is nothing to lose - you only really hold information back when it is suspicious and points to potential culprits. “But I do not believe they have that, or else Nicola’s family, friends, and community would not be so proactive in giving interviews saying they are sure she is not in the river. “ The person I want to hear from now is the senior investigating officer (SIO).“They are the lead detective, with 40 officers, and should be the fact of the inquiry. “I am not criticising the superintendent who has been speaking to the media but let’s hear from the SIO about why they think this is an accident.”

There is an apparent disruption in the communication between the police investigators in this case. The debate should have not reached the media before it was discussed within the force. The public might have a feeling that there are some irregularities and disputes within the police forces. It might affect the trust of the public in not only investigating this case but generally in all the investigations.

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The mother-of-two vanished while walking her dog, Willow, in St Michael's on Wyre

The police investigation into Nicola Bulley's disappearance has been married by three crucial errors, according to a top murder detective.

The mother-of-two vanished on January 27 while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre, prompting a wide scale search from the police.

Bulley had been walking near the River Wyre, shortly dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.

A top detective has added to the dissenting voices with regards to the police operation, criticising the fact that the area had not been cordoned off, as the location has turned into a "tasteless tourist spot".

Ex-Detective Chief Inspector of the Met Police, Simon Harding, told The Sunday Times: "You would expect the area where Nicola was last seen to be cordoned off too, to stop people descending on it as a tasteless tourist spot and trampling the area, losing any potential evidence.

"But there does not appear to be any cordon because Nicola's disappearance is said to be non-suspicious."

The police are continuing to work on a hypothesis that the 45-year-old fell into a nearby river, something her partner has cast doubt over, telling Channel 5 his "gut instinct" is that this is not the case.

Harding feels the police have become "doggedly stuck" with their original theory, and have failed to consider other possibilities enough.

"I would have demanded evidence and facts that made me totally sure this [drowning theory] was the case before telling the public there had been 'no third party involvement'," he said.

The detective added the assertive nature of the police communication could send an "incredibly damaging message".

He said: "If every possible route in and out of that area is not covered by CCTV - as is likely in the countryside - you simply cannot be sure that someone else is not involved.

"If you are 100 per cent sure no one entered or left the scene within the crucial time frame, of course you would suggest - as one hypothesis - that Nicola might have fallen into the river.

"If you are not sure, however, it can be an incredibly damaging message.

"You are inadvertently saying to the public: 'Don't call us as we don't want to know about suspicious people, vehicles or events'."

The search for Nicola has entered a 17th day, and the police have already discounted foul play, saying the incident is being treated as a missing person inquiry.

Despite the police saying they are keeping an "open mind" on the matter, Harding has criticised the force's communication with the public throughout the case, saying they are "letting speculation continue".

He said: "If they are in possession of new facts, I would consider whether it might be time to inform the public rather than let speculation continue.

"There is nothing to lose - you only really hold information back when it is suspicious and points to potential culprits.

"But I do not believe they have that, or else Nicola's family, friends and community would not be so proactive in giving interviews saying they are sure she is not in the river.

"The person I want to hear from now is the senior investigating officer (SIO).

"They are the lead detective, with 40 officers, and should be the fact of the inquiry.

"I am not criticising the superintendent who has been speaking to the media but let's hear from the SIO about why they think this is an accident."

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Nicola Bulley police have made THREE crucial errors says top murder detective

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The police investigation into Nicola Bulley's disappearance has been married by three crucial errors, according to a top murder detective. The mother-of-two vanished on January 27 while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre, prompting a wide scale search from the police.

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On the 5th of September 2022 in Streatham, London dad-to-be Chris Kaba was shot and killed by police. It was initially reported by police that Mr. Kaba was killed after a “pursuit of a suspect vehicle” and being shot inside the car. After an inquest and investigation from the Independent Office for Police Conduct, it was said that the car Mr. Kaba was driving was flagged as being linked to a firearms incident in the previous days. However, Mr. Kaba was not a suspect, and the officers followed him without activating their lights or sirens. Furthermore, no firearms were found in Mr. Kaba’s vehicle or at the scene.

It is well known, especially within the black community, that the police are seen to be a racist organisation; with black people being over-represented in statistics such as stop and search, imprisonment, and deaths within or following police custody (Home Office, 2022, IOPC, 2021). Thus, calling into question whether the police are willing to protect and serve the black community.

Psychological literature and cases such as this highlight the ways that racial bias manifests in policing, and the need to take more action addressing issues like racial profiling. Studies such as Nadal et al. (2017) suggest that police acknowledge the negative perceptions of police within the black community. Only after this would they be to take the next step of integrating race into all aspects of police culture. Hence, race is no longer an afterthought, potentially improving racial dynamics and increasing better community relationships (Nadal et al., 2017).

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Chris Kaba was not a suspect and was being followed by a police car without lights or sirens before he was shot dead by a firearms officer, an inquest into his death has been told.

The unarmed father-to-be was killed by a single shot to the head fired by an officer referred to only as NX121, in a residential road in Streatham on 5 September, Southwark coroner's court heard on Tuesday morning.

In the aftermath of the incident, the Metropolitan police said Kaba had been shot "after a vehicle pursuit". The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is investigating the shooting, made no mention of a chase in a summary of the incident read to the court.

The IOPC lead investigator, Dean Brown, confirmed the Audi that Kaba had been driving was "believed to be linked to a firearms incident which took place the previous day".

He told the inquest the Audi was followed and that no lights or sirens were used. He also said Kaba was not a suspect.

Chris Kaba's fatal shooting is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Photograph: Handout

Brown told the court: "A briefing was provided to officers prior to their shifts on 5 September in which the Audi was brought to their attention as being potentially associated with the firearm incident from the previous day. Mr Kaba's name was not included in this briefing."

Officers sent a police radio message at about 9.53pm that they were following the vehicle, the inquest heard. Brown said: "Officers continued to follow the Audi until 10.07pm. The officers did not activate their lights or sirens."

Kaba made a left turn into Kirkstall Gardens in Streatham, where a marked police armed response vehicle was waiting occupied by officer NX121, Brown told the inquest.

He added: "Once Mr Kaba made the left turn the decision was taken to perform an inline extraction. Armed officers exited their vehicles and approached the Audi.

"The evidence suggests that contact was made between the Audi driven by Mr Kaba and the police vehicles.

"The evidence further suggests that officer NX121 was standing to the front of Mr Kaba's vehicle. A single shot was fired by officer NX121 piercing the front windscreen of the vehicle Mr Kaba was driving."

Brown added: "Officers at the scene provided first aid to Mr Kaba before he was taken to King's College hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12.16am."

The inquest heard that officer NX121, who has been suspended from duty, had been notified that they are under criminal investigation for the offence of the murder.

The senior coroner Andrew Harris asked if anyone had been charged with homicide. Dean replied: "Not at this time."

He said the investigation was "extensive and ongoing" and was expected to take six to nine months to complete. He added: "The investigation is still eager to hear from anyone who has not made contact to date who witnessed the incident."

Harris expressed his condolences to Kaba's family who were sitting in the court, before adjourning the inquest to allow the IOPC to complete its investigation.

In a statement on behalf of the family, Kaba's cousin Jefferson Bosela said: "The family is pleased that, in this statement, the IOPC made public some of its initial findings about what happened that night. Every new fact is a step towards justice for Chris."

Outside the court, Bosela expressed alarm at the time it was taking to investigate the death. He also called for the officer who fired the fatal shot to be interviewed under caution.

Flanked by Kaba's tearful parents, Bosela said: "Officers must be interviewed under caution immediately. We have been told that after nearly a month, neither the officer who killed Chris or any of the other officers involved have been interviewed under caution."

Bosela, wearing a Justice for Chris Kaba T-shirt, also called on the Crown Prosecution Service to urgently make a charging decision.

He said: "This should not take months and months. The evidence they need to make that decision should be available within weeks. An urgent decision on criminal charges is critical for this family, and many others, to have faith in the system that is supposed to bring them justice."

And he expressed frustration at the IOPC's failure to update the family about the investigation.

Bosela said: "While we have had positive communications with the IOPC, at times our family has had to chase the IOPC for information or push them to do what they should be doing already. The best way for the family to have confidence in the process, is for the family to be kept closely informed at every stage."

Bosela added: "We need answers. Not just this family, but the whole of London - the whole of the country - needs to know how something like this could occur? How can a young man, sitting in a car, unarmed, be shot in the head by police in London in 2022? This should never have happened. It must never happen again. We must never accept this as normal. Someone must be held accountable."

He concluded: "We will not rest until the people responsible for Chris's death are held fully accountable."

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Chris Kaba was not a suspect before being fatally shot by police, hears inquest

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Chris Kaba was not a suspect and was being followed by a police car without lights or sirens before he was shot dead by a firearms officer, an inquest into his death has been told.

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Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Wayne Couzens, who was at the time, a serving metropolitan police officer in March 2021. A vigil (Reclaim These Streets) to allow hundreds of people to pay their respects happened at Clapham Common on March 13th, 2021. The police proceeded to make arrests at the protest stating that COVID-19 regulations had been broken and feared that it had become an “anti-police protest”. As the day progressed it is reported that hostility started to increase. For example, a woman was “shoved forcefully in the back” by police officers lifting her from the ground on more than one occasion, however the woman stated she was trying to retrieve her glasses from the floor. Additionally, women were forcefully arrested or removed from the area and according to some, threatened. It was suggested that women believed they were being dominated by males at the time of the vigil, in the sense that they were unable to freely mourn for another woman (Stott et al., 2022). The police handling this situation forcefully could have increased hostility and upset around the situation given Wayne Couzens’ job role and the emphasis on the treatment of women by those in authority.

The media has the ability to construct the narrative around police legitimacy, as it acts as both a complaint and regulatory tool, therefore it is vital to remember the impact that the media can play, especially since this was a topic that was heavily reported on (Yannoulatou, 2022). The COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time of the vigil included a ban on 30 or more people gathering in a public, outdoor place (Lowerson, 2022). The police handling of peaceful protests and vigils during the pandemic has been suggested to be one of the most central challenges to police legitimacy (Stott et al., 2022). It is difficult to ascertain if this situation does question the legitimacy of the metropolitan police, it can be argued that the interplaying factors that contribute to the question in this case are four-fold: (1) Wayne Couzens being a police officer at the time of offence, (2) the offence highlighting social inequalities in terms of gender, (3) the political significance, and (4) COVID-19 regulations.

Violence against women and girls (VWAG) is a prominent area in Forensic Psychology. Suggestions have been made for women to take steps to mitigate their vulnerabilities, including, altering their routes, being ‘street savvy’, minimising their alcohol intake and checking the credentials of police officers to confirm their identity (Brooks, 2011; Brown & Hovarth, 2021). However, others argue that the focus should not be on females changing their behaviours, but for males to alter theirs instead (Vera-Gray & Kelly, 2020). Psychological research into perceptions of safety based on the murder of Sarah Everard could inform policy and legislation. The situation that Sarah Everard was in (well-lit streets, open area) seemingly goes against what women perceive as dangerous (Unwin Teji & Raynham, 2021) and since this, strategies have been adopted by government to increase feelings of safety (Safer Streets Fund, Project Vigilant; Gov, 2021).

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Sarah Everard vigil: What sparked the ugly scenes - and were the police tactics warranted?

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Sarah Everard vigil: What sparked the ugly scenes - and were the police tactics warranted?