A woman who was strip-searched by police when she was just 15 and forced to expose her intimate parts while on her period has said she does not know if she will ever “feel normal again”.
The black schoolgirl was inappropriately searched at a school in Hackney, east London, in 2020 after she was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis.
A four-week tribunal found on Thursday that the two Metropolitan Police officers involved in the search, trainee detective constable Kristina Linge and Pc Rafal Szmydynski, were guilty of gross misconduct. They have both been dismissed without notice, while a third officer was found to have committed misconduct and given a final written warning.
The victim, identified only as Child Q due to her age at the time of the incident, said she “cannot go a single day without wanting to scream” since the incident.
In a statement released via Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, she said: “Someone walked into the school, where I was supposed to feel safe, took me away from the people who were supposed to protect me and stripped me naked, while on my period.
“I can't go a single day without wanting to scream, shout, cry or just give up. I don't know if I'm going to feel normal again. But I do know this can't happen to anyone, ever again.”
The victim did not speak during the tribunal.
The woman’s mother, who says she attended every day of the month-long tribunal, says though she is “relieved” that the two officers have been found guilty, she believes the Met Police “still has a huge amount of work to do … to win back the confidence of Black Londonders”.
The tribunal was told how black children were more likely to be treated as adults and less vulnerable than their white peers. But neither race nor age were found to be a factor in how Child Q was treated.
Commander Kevin Southworth, head of Public Protection in the Met Police’s Frontline Policing team, described the strip-search of Child Q as “truly regrettable”.
"The experience of Child Q should never have happened and was truly regrettable,” he said.
"We have sincerely apologised to Child Q since this incident happened. Again, I am deeply sorry to Child Q and her family for the trauma that we caused her, and the damage this incident caused to the trust and confidence black communities across London have in our officers."
The force said the schoolgirl was searched on 3 December 2020, when police were called after staff raised concerns that she smelled strongly of cannabis and may have been in possession of drugs.
Two female officers conducted a more thorough search of the girl, which exposed intimate parts, in the medical room at the school, according to police, but no appropriate adult was present. No drugs were found.
The Children’s Commissioner’s latest report revealed that a child was strip searched every 14 hours between January 2018 and June 2023, with official data suggesting an appropriate adult was not present in 45 per cent of searches.
Lynn Perry, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardo’s, said: “It’s deeply worrying that strip searching children is so common, so frequently done without proper safeguarding, and that Black children are four times more likely to be strip searched than children from other backgrounds.
“It’s essential that policing is done with respect and safety, and that children and young people can trust the criminal justice system.”
Criminal trials linked to Post Office Horizon scandal could wait until 2028
‘I don’t know if I’m going to feel normal again’ Child Q says over strip search
Two Met Police officers sacked for gross misconduct in Child Q search
Have your say: Has Starmer been weakened by Labour’s welfare revolt?
Major search in Ingleby Barwick near river for 13-year-old boy
British cherries to be ‘bigger, sweeter, juicier’. Here’s why
