Rape cases ‘dropped’ by Met Police ‘due to broken freezer’, Casey review hears

Officers at the Metropolitan Police were told some rape cases “would be dropped” because evidence held in a broken freezer had to be destroyed, a report has revealed.

The incident was “symbolic” of the failings at Britain’s biggest police force, according to Baroness Louise Casey, who conducted a year-long review into the organisation.

She found that the Met is institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic and said the force may need to be broken up to “fix” it.

Here, Sky News looks at some of the shocking details revealed in the review.

Rape evidence ‘destroyed’ after freezer broke

The report found that Met officers investigating sexual offence cases have to contend with “over-stuffed, dilapidated or broken fridges and freezers containing evidence including the rape kits of victims”.

“We heard of freezers crammed full of evidence samples, which were overflowing, frosted over and taped shut,” it said.

One officer, referred to as G, said her unit’s freezers – containing swabs, blood, urine and underwear from sexual assault victims – would be so full it would take three officers to close them.

“All the fridges used for rape kits were in bad shape, packed and ruining evidence,” the report said.

Officer G said one freezer broke down during last year’s heatwave and “all of the evidence had to be destroyed because it could no longer be used”.

She added that general email was “sent round to this effect and that it meant that all those cases of alleged rape would be dropped”, according to the report.

Officer G also said she had “lost count” of the number of times she had asked a colleague where the necessary evidence was before being told that it had been lost.

Female officer ‘repeatedly raped by colleague’ tried to take own life

The review said it met a policewoman who was a “victim of domestic and sexual abuse”, allegedly at the hands of a fellow Met officer.

The woman – referred to as officer A – said it was “an open secret on their team but few people wanted to speak up”.

She said the abuse escalated and the other officer – referred to as X – raped her on a number of occasions.

Describing “the worst and final incident, she said: “He smacked me round the face, I lost consciousness, he raped me. I had a black eye, a split lip.”

Officer A told the review that she and X remained on the same team despite her pleas to her supervisors for them to be separated, without revealing the reason.

The case was passed between six different investigators in the Met’s misconduct system in a year, with the officer being asked to give her account of what had happened each time.

She said: “I was getting so angry and so frustrated with them and I decided I couldn’t do it any more, I’m done, I need to get on with my life, I was in an absolute state.

“I had tried to kill myself that year because of the police investigation, it was draining the life out of me.”

After two years of investigation, no action was taken.

Policewoman who accused colleague of sexual assault ‘labelled trouble-maker’

A female officer said she was sexually assaulted in the workplace multiple times by a more senior male officer.

The policewoman, referred to as L, said her colleague would frequently touch her inappropriately, force her to sit on his lap and touch her on intimate parts of her body while she was getting changed in communal changing rooms.

She said she reported the male officer to her sergeant but “nothing was done”, according to the report.

As she contemplated pursuing a criminal case, the officer said she felt like she had been persuaded to “keep it in house” so she “decided on the misconduct route”.

Months later, she found out by chance that the case had been dismissed when she bumped into an officer in a corridor who said “sorry about how it went, but that’s how it goes.”

Officer L challenged the decision but was told: “It’s your word against his,” and that her alleged abuser had a “long, unblemished career in the Met.”

No further action was taken against the male officer, who has since retired from the Met, the report said.

After the case was dismissed, L said she was labelled a liar and a trouble-maker and ostracised from her colleagues.

‘Initiation rituals’ included officers being urinated on

The report detailed “initiation rituals” involving “the humiliation of junior staff” at the Met Police. This included food-eating challenges, people being urinated on and a male officer who was allegedly sexually assaulted in showers.

A female officer said initiation rituals were common in her unit, with women forced to eat whole cheesecakes until they would vomit.

“Those who refused to participate were ostracised and considered ‘not to be part of the team’,” the officer told the review.

The report also detailed “pranks” and “banter” by Met Police officers, including incidents where bags of urine were thrown at cars, sex toys were put in coffee mugs, and an animal left in an officer’s locker.

Officer ‘groomed’ domestic abuse victim

A Met Police officer who visited the home of a domestic abuse victim “went on to cultivate an inappropriate relationship with her”, the report said.

He “discouraged her from speaking with friends and family and any other officers” and “she grew to see him as a friend and the only person she could trust”, the report said.

“She was unaware that she was being groomed,” it added.

The woman later learnt that the officer had not recorded any of the evidence she gave about her case, meaning her original abuser would not face justice, according to the report.

The officer cut contact when he was put under investigation related to a relationship with another victim, who he also met “due to her extreme vulnerability”, it added.

He resigned from the force before his hearing for gross misconduct, the review said.

Although he no longer works for the Met, his place on the policing barred list may expire, and there are concerns that his current job places him in a position where he could abuse other women, the report said.

Officer called woman ‘n****r lover’

The review said that “overt racism” in the Met Police was not “a thing of the past”.

A black female officer said she was left feeling she wanted to resign after hearing racist remarks by a more senior officer.

The pair were working together as they intercepted a white woman buying drugs from a black person.

The senior officer allegedly called the white woman a “n***** lover”, a “slag”, and a “dirty woman”, the report said.

Gay Met officer: I am scared of the police

An openly gay officer was the target of a “sustained campaign of homophobia from inside the Met”, the review said.

He had seen WhatsApp messages exchanged by colleagues planning to target him with stop and search while he is off-duty, and has been the victim of malicious calls to the force’s internal, anonymous reporting line.

The officer had also been targeted with homophobic abuse from anonymous accounts on social media.

“This will sound quite laughable. I am scared of the police,” he said.

“I don’t trust my own organisation. I will vary the route I walk to avoid walking past police officers when I am not at work.”

Rape ‘basically legalised’ in London

One officer said the detection rate – the proportion of cases where a suspect has been identified – for rape is so low that it has basically been legalised in London.

They said: “If you look at our performance around rape, serious sexual offences, the detection rate is so low you may as well say it’s legal in London.

“It’s kind of reflective of how we treat and view our female colleagues. You get victim blaming, looking at a situation and not believing [them].”

The report found an “endemic culture of disbelieving victims” of rape and other sexual offences and “a toxic work environment” for officers investigating those cases.

Many victims described feeling “gaslighted” by officers who “invalidated their feelings and that what they had experienced was not a crime”, the report said.

One victim who was assaulted was asked if he did anything to provoke the attack. A rape victim was told that she “should and could have done more” to protect herself.

Victims also spoke about Met officers excusing the behaviour of perpetrators, including one who said: “This is his first offence…you’ve got to remember they are really young.”

One victim was told she was paranoid, and was asked whether she had a mental health condition.

Unit where Couzens and Carrick served ‘a dark corner of the Met’

The Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command (PaDP) – the unit that both killer Wayne Couzens and rapist David Carrick served in – is “a dark corner of the Met where poor behaviours can easily flourish”, the report said.

One black PaDP officer who worked as an unarmed guard on a post was referred to as a “gate-monkey” by colleagues, which the officer considered a “racist slur”.

Female officers spoke of feeling uncomfortable after overhearing male PaDP officers express their view that a woman who had alleged she had been raped “was trying to make money”.

They heard other officers expressing the view that police officers arrested for rape should be bailed and allowed to return to work, the report said.

‘Toxic culture’ in firearms unit

The report said there was “a deeply troubling, toxic culture” at the Met’s specialist firearms command, known as MO19.

There was “excessive spending on unnecessary, high-end equipment and kit, such as tomahawk axes and unusable night vision goggles which turned out to be useless in London’s street-lit environment”, it found.

Officers also ordered iPads and personalised jackets on expenses, the review said.

One former MO19 officer said that when she questioned why there weren’t any female toilets at a training facility, she was brushed off by senior officers and “told to use the woods”.

On another occasion, a poster appeared in an MO19 common area which had been photoshopped to show female firearms officers carrying mops, irons and kettles instead of weapons.

The review was told of a “number of sexual misconduct issues in MO19 indicating a clear pattern of male officers being temporarily moved off the command after allegations were raised, only to have the decision overturned, or be reinstated by a more senior officer shortly after”.

It also heard of a training desk where “men hold competitions on how often they can make their female students cry”.

The report said a tactic was taught to some officers to indicate when a WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram group had become “compromised”. This was to type the word “landslide” – the same code word used if an officer finds an explosive that looks like it will detonate.

Officers will then immediately leave the group, delete its contents and create a new group under a new name, it added.