Met Police Officer Samantha Lee Claims Gender Discrimination in Wake of Indecent Exposure Incident

Some messages blamed Lee for Sarah Everard's murder.

Lee said she has been made a "scapegoat" for wider Met failings.

The Met has launched an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the murder.

Lee's investigation was conducted on March 3, 2021, just hours before Couzens kidnapped and murdered Ms Everard.

The panel criticized Lee's investigation and found her guilty of gross misconduct.

Lee says she didn't view CCTV footage because the McDonald's manager had already deleted it, but the panel found this claim to be a lie.

Lee says she feels unfairly blamed for the kidnapping and murder of Ms Everard and that the Met was treating indecent exposure as a low-level offense.

Samantha Lee, a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Service, has accused the force of treating her unfairly and using her as a scapegoat in the wake of a series of incidents, including an indecent exposure incident in 2015 that has been linked to officer Wayne Couzens.

Lee, who was the lone female officer at the time of the incident, has stated that she feels that she has been treated unfairly as a woman police constable and that the Met has not made genuine changes to prevent such incidents in the future.

The Met has referred the BBC to a statement from Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy, who stated that the panel found Lee's actions fell below professional standards expected of her and that honesty and integrity are fundamental to policing.

The purpose of the gross misconduct hearing was not to decide whether Couzens' future offending could have been prevented.

Cundy added that he is sorry that Couzens went on to murder Sarah Everard and that the Met is working to improve its response to violence against women and girls.