The Met Police is again facing questions over its handling of the case of missing student nurse Owami Davies after the force admitted issuing pictures of the wrong woman.
The 24-year-old from Grays, Essex, has now been missing for seven weeks. She left her family home on 4 July and was last seen at around midnight in Derby Road, West Croydon, south London on 7 July.
On 3 August, the Met Police released CCTV images from a shop in Croydon of a woman they said was Ms Davies.
The pictures were published by multiple media outlets, but the force later issued an apology saying that the images were not of Ms Davies, but of another woman. The images were subsequently withdrawn, and the police reissued new pictures.
It comes as the police watchdog considers whether to investigate Scotland Yard after officers came into contact with Ms Davies after she had been reported missing.
The Met revealed its officers had spoken to Ms Davies on 6 July, but did not know she was a missing person.
In a statement, the force said officers were called to an address in Clarendon Road, Croydon, to concerns over the welfare of a woman. But she told them she did not want help and left before an ambulance could attend.
Labour MP Diane Abbott criticised the Met Police for not taking Ms Davies’s disappearance seriously.
She told LBC: “I think it’s fairly clear that this disappearance wasn’t treated entirely seriously.
“Otherwise they couldn’t have put up the wrong photograph. You will know, and many of your audience will know, that the Metropolitan Police are in special measures.
“This is exactly the kind of thing why they are in special measures, this kind of sloppiness, this sense that they don’t serve certain communities as well as they could and it’s all very upsetting.”
Ms Davies’s family reported her missing to Essex Police on 6 July and the force handed the investigation to the Metropolitan Police on 23 July.
Five men have been arrested, two on suspicion of murder and three on suspicion of kidnap, and have all been released on bail, pending further investigation.
The last CCTV image of Ms Davies was taken around 12.30pm on 7 July, walking on London Road, away from West Croydon and towards Norbury. She was wearing a dark jacket, red t-shirt, grey joggers, sliders and carrying a white handbag.
A Met spokesperson said: “Our efforts to find Owami are being led by a team of detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, who are experts in complex investigations. They are supported by resources from local policing teams and are working night and day to pursue every possible line of inquiry.
“As of Tuesday this week they had recovered 50,000 hours of CCTV and had viewed 10,000 hours as they work to confirm possible sightings and trace Owami’s movements. They continue to carry out additional patrols in the area she was last seen in an effort to identify new leads.
“Any suggestion that the investigation is not being taken seriously and that we are not fully dedicated to finding Owami is not only disappointing, it is simply not supported by the facts.”
