Revealed: Nearly 200 Met Police officers have been accused of sexual misconduct by fellow cops in last two years
- A total of 193 officers received allegations of sexual misconduct from 2019-2021
- Majority of those accused are men, making up 87 per cent of accusations in 2019 and 89 per cent in 2020, but just four officers faced suspension or restrictions
- Former Met Officer Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in March, was at the centre of a probe digging into claims of misconduct
Almost 200 Met Police officers have been accused of sexual misconduct in just the last two years, new figures have shown.
A total of 193 officers have received allegations that they were involved in sexual assault, harassment and other sexual misconduct offences since 2019.
The majority of those accused have been male members of the force, amounting to 87 per cent of the accusations in 2019 and 89 per cent of the allegations in 2020, reports MyLondon.
771 Met officers have been accused of sexual misconduct crimes from colleagues since 2010, with 191 people being arrested on suspicion of committing a sexual offence.
The majority of subsequent investigations saw those allegations not being upheld.
Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard while she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham in March, was reported to bosses for allegedly slapping a female colleague’s bottom at Bromley police station in 2018 – just weeks after he joined the force.
Couzens, who was nicknamed ‘The Rapist’ by colleagues, allegedly stopped a female motorist and said her tax and insurance were out of date before making a note of her address so he could later pull up outside her house and leer at her
He had also been accused of indecent exposure three times before he abducted the marketing executive in Clapham, south London, on March 3.
Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard in March, was dubbed ‘The Rapist’ by colleagues in the force and was at the centre of a string of misconduct accusations
A total of 193 officers have received allegations that they were involved in sexual assault, harassment and other sexual misconduct offences since 2019
Four people either faced suspensions or restrictions in 2019 and 2020, with two appearing before courts accused of sexual offences since 2010.
The figures do not take into account Wayne Couzens, who was at the centre of a host of accusations of sexual misconduct prior to his killing of Ms Sarah Everard in March this year.
Couzens, who will be sentenced in September, was only fired from the Met after a Scotland Yard misconduct hearing on July 16 found his actions had breached
The IOPC has since launched an investigation into alleged failures by Kent Police to investigate the indecent exposure allegation against Couzens dating back to 2015.
The probe is also questioning alleged failures by the Met to investigate two allegations of indecent exposure linked to Couzens in London in February this year, with two officers under investigation for possible breaches of professional standards.
Five members of Miss Everard’s family were joined by Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick in court to watch as Couzens, head bowed and shaking, entered his whispered plea by video link from Belmarsh prison
Couzens seen in a court sketch during a previous hearing relating to the case. He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the murder of the marketing executive on Friday
A married detective sergeant with the Met was also at the centre of a probe into his behaviour after he filmed a naked woman in the shower on his phone.
Det Sgt Benjamin McNish, 30, held his mobile phone above the glass panel to record his victim as she undressed and washed on February 18, 2019, at a small flat in north London.
He was convicted of voyeurism at Southwark Crown Court after a four day trial last month, but sentenced to 20 weeks jail suspended for two years and will take part in the Horizon programme for medium risk sex offenders.
As soon as she spotted the phone, married Met Police detective Benjamin McNish (pictured) pulled it away, then pointed it at her again, Southwark Crown Court heard
Shortly after starting at Bromley in South London, the married killer allegedly stopped a female motorist and said her tax and insurance were out of date before making a note of her address so he could later pull up outside her house and leer at her
Responding to the figures of sexual misconduct accusations in the Met, a spokesperson with the force said: ‘We take any police-perpetrated abuse incidents extremely seriously and they are regularly scrutinised at a senior level.
Any allegation, disclosure or conviction of sexual harassment or abuse perpetrated by an officer or member of staff is robustly investigated.
‘Tackling sexual offences is a priority for the Met, and that includes when our own officers or staff are accused of offences.
‘The Met will not hesitate to bring forward prosecutions and disciplinary procedures where there is evidence to do so.’
The three clues police missed in the Sarah Everard case
Wayne Couzens was reported to bosses for allegedly slapping a female colleague’s bottom at Bromley police station in 2018 – just weeks after he joined the force.
Shortly after starting at Bromley in South London, he allegedly stopped a female motorist and said her tax and insurance were out of date before making a note of her address so he could later pull up outside her house and leer at her, the Sun on Sunday reports.
Couzens’ former colleagues at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary allegedly nicknamed him ‘The Rapist’ because of how he is said to have made female colleagues uneasy, is also accused of parking his patrol car by schools so he could watch mothers and sixth-formers.
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