London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Revealed: the grim list of sex abuse claims against Metropolitan police

Revealed: the grim list of sex abuse claims against Metropolitan police

The force upheld 119 cases among 600 complaints; they included an officer who was sacked after having sex with a rape victim

An extraordinary catalogue of sexual misconduct allegations against Metropolitan police officers, including claims that one had sex with a rape victim and another assaulted a domestic abuse survivor, are revealed in documents obtained by the Observer.

The disclosures will intensify pressure on the Met after its officers manhandled women at last Saturday’s vigil for Sarah Everard where hundreds demanded the right to be safe on London’s streets.

Organisers of the vigil on Clapham Common subsequently accused the force of losing the faith of women and being unable to tackle its “institutional misogyny”.

Campaigners said the latest revelations amplified concern among women that the police cannot be trusted to protect their safety.

According to the documents, released under freedom of information laws, the rape victim complained that the investigating officer “took advantage of her vulnerability and had sex with her on two occasions”. The officer was subsequently dismissed.

There was a total of 594 complaints against Met employees between 2012 and 2018, of which 119 were upheld. Among those was a Met officer who was dismissed after allegedly pretending to be a woman online “to advance his sexual proclivities and also film a woman apparently having non-consensual sex with a male in a public park”.

Another officer was forced to leave the Met over allegations that he was having a “sexual relationship with a resident in a women’s refuge”, a safe house where victims of domestic violence seek sanctuary.

Other serious cases include an officer who met a woman while on duty and later visited her home where sexual intercourse led to an allegation of rape. He received a verbal warning and management advice, the least severe censure an officer can receive following a misconduct hearing.

“We expect a higher standard from our protectors,” said Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor. “The whole point of the police is that they work with the most vulnerable.”

The details, disclosed by the Met after the Observer requested information on complaints regarding sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape against officers, community support officers and special constables, emerged from the 594 complaints against Met employees.

Individual cases are not dated but recorded as a summary of the allegations when the complaint was first received. The outcome of any disciplinary action is also given. Of the 119 cases that were upheld, 63 led to dismissals, retirements or resignations.

What is not disclosed, however, is how many cases entered into the criminal justice system.

“How many were charged with misconduct in a public office or sexual offences? If not then a proper explanation needs to be given. Disciplinary proceedings are no substitute for judicial proceedings,” said Afzal, who was chief crown prosecutor for the north-west of England.

Among those who resigned was an off-duty special constable who was accused of raping women he met at a nightclub. Last week Downing Street unveiled plans to protect women by putting plainclothes officers in nightclubs, a scheme swiftly derided by campaigners with some asking who would protect women from undercover police.

Details of other cases indicate that the actions of some officers undermined the work of domestic violence advocates – individuals who support abuse survivors – stationed in the Met’s community safety units.

One officer was accused of eroding trust by displaying “an arrogance towards female members of staff and a ready willingness to take advantage of his position of trust to engage in unwanted physical contact”. He received a final written warning.

A number of the cases document instances of domestic abuse, with one officer dismissed after being arrested “on suspicion of rape, threats to kill and common assault” against his partner. Another, a special constable, “raped his wife numerous times over eight years of marriage” and was also dismissed.

A separate incident involved an officer who was dismissed after allegedly sending shocking posts on the messaging app Kik. The summary of the initial claims against him reveal that his messages included “comments stating that he wished to rape the females in the picture and have them raped by others. The images appear to be his daughter and niece.”

PC Oliver Banfield admitted a charge of assault by beating and was sentenced at Leicester magistrates’ court on 19 March to a 14-week curfew.


Other sexual misconduct allegations involved officers and children. A significant number of cases involved claims of groping, lewd comments or uploading obscene images, although one officer who had inappropriate images on his phone was also judged to have been acting as “an online sexual predator”.

In the West Midlands meanwhile, an off-duty police officer was convicted of assault by beating on Friday after he had pleaded guilty to attacking a woman who was walking home alone.

PC Oliver Banfield, 25, avoided prison but was instead given a curfew and ordered to pay his victim £500, prompting criticism from the Labour MP Harriet Harman who said that the “system fails women and protects men”.

Separate data confirms that sexual misconduct among officers is a continuing problem. Figures from the Royal College of Policing’s current “barred list” – officers who have been dismissed from a force and are banned from joining another – show that nearly a fifth of offences include abuse of position for sexual purposes, domestic violence or harassment against the public and colleagues.

Of the 555 officers barred since the list was introduced in December 2017, more than 1,100 reasons for dismissal are listed of which more than 200 involve sexual, harassment or domestic abuse offences. Nearly a quarter of the barred officers served in the Met.

A statement from the Metropolitan police said: “While the allegations involve a small percentage of staff, we acknowledge the impact any offence will have on those involved, and will continue to take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously.

“It is clear this type of conduct has no place within the organisation. If standards are proven to have fallen below what is expected, we take appropriate action to ensure both accountability and that lessons are learnt from each case.”

It added that incidents were investigated by its directorate of professional standards with referrals to the police watchdog where “appropriate”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×