A Metropolitan Police officer who strip searched a 15-year-old schoolgirl thought she was “doing the right thing”, a misconduct panel has heard.
The girl, known as Child Q, was strip searched by officers in Hackney, east London, on December 3 2020 after her school wrongly suspected her of carrying cannabis.
This involved the removal of the 15-year-old’s clothing including underwear, her bending over and having to expose intimate parts of her body while she was menstruating, the panel heard.
Trainee detective constable (TDC) Kristina Linge, Pc Victoria Wray and Pc Rafal Szmydynski, who were all Pcs at the time, all deny gross misconduct over their treatment of the girl.
Giving evidence to a misconduct panel on Monday, Pc Wray, who undertook the search alongside TDC Linge, admitted a series of failings in her handling of the incident.
Robert Morris, representing her, asked: “Do you think you were performing an overly intrusive search?”
“I thought the skipper had authorised it, I thought the officers at the scene had covered all bases,” she replied.
“I thought I was doing the right thing,” she added.
Asked whether she was “aware” of certain stereotypes relating to black people, Pc Wray replied: “If I am aware of the stereotypes, I don’t use them stereotypes to make any decisions.
“Those decisions are purely based on facts, on my surroundings, on the intel, I prefer to make very objective decisions.”
The panel heard records showed the majority of the individuals stopped and searched by Pc Wray were black or Asian.
Mr Morris continued: “Do you think your actions have been unconsciously biased by race?”
“No, not at all,” she replied.
Asked if she thought the search should have taken place at all, Pc Wray responded “No.
“There was so many things that should’ve been done, we should’ve spoken to the teachers more, we should’ve phoned mum, we should’ve spoken to the sergeant more.”
Mr Morris went on to ask why she did not stop to do those things and reassess the situation, to which Pc Wray replied: “I was just following the lead of other officers.”
“It was just such a quick interaction, I am sorry and I should’ve stopped and I should’ve thought and I should’ve checked, I am really sorry,” she added.
The officer, who was 25 at the time of the incident, said of the search: “I never intended it to be humiliating and degrading.
“It happened in the way we were trained, we tried to make it age-appropriate.”
Speaking through tears, whilst dabbing her eyes with tissues, Pc Wray added: “I am really sorry to Child Q and her family.
“I should’ve checked so many things but I didn’t and I’m sorry.
“I’m sorry for any distress, it was never my intention, I was just trying to help out.”
Pc Wray said prior to the incident she had never strip searched anyone who was not in custody and had never attended a school for policing purposes.
The panel previously heard the child informed the officers who searched her that she was menstruating but the search continued during which her sanitary pad was exposed.
When no drugs were found, Child Q’s hair was also scoured.
According to the allegations, Pcs Linge and Szmydynski performed a search that exposed the girl’s intimate parts when this was “disproportionate in all the circumstances”.
Pcs Linge and Wray are also accused of performing or allowing the search in a manner which was “unjustified, inappropriate, disproportionate, humiliating and degrading”.
It is alleged that all of this happened without authorisation, in the absence of an appropriate adult, and with no adequate concern being given to Child Q’s age, sex, or the need to treat her as a child, and that the child’s race was an effective cause of this.
Pcs Szmydynski and Linge are further accused of giving a “misleading record” of the search afterwards.
The girl will not be giving evidence at the tribunal “because of the psychological effects” the search has had on her, the panel has heard.
Outrage over Child Q’s treatment led to protests outside Stoke Newington Police Station.
Scotland Yard has previously apologised over the incident.
The hearing continues.
