Friday, 27 June 2025

Two Met officers dismissed for gross misconduct after strip-search of black schoolgirl

 Disciplinary hearing finds police officers’ search of Child Q, 15, was disproportionate and humiliating

Two police officers who were involved in the strip-search of a black teenager at her school have been dismissed after they were found to have committed gross misconduct.

The search at a school in Hackney, east London, was “disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary” and made the girl, known as Child Q, feel degraded and humiliated, a panel concluded at the end of a four-week misconduct hearing.

But the panel, chaired by a senior police commander, found that race was not a factor in the police officers’ decision to subject the 15-year-old to the search in December 2020, and nor was it found that she was treated as an adult. A third officer was found to have committed a lesser offence of misconduct.

In a statement supplied by her solicitor, the girl said afterwards: “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.”

Outrage over the schoolgirl’s treatment led to protests by hundreds outside a town hall and a police station after a safeguarding review revealed details of the incident.

Amid suspicions on the part of school staff that she smelled of cannabis after arriving for a mock exam, she was taken to the medical room to be strip-searched while teachers remained outside. No cannabis was ever found.

The search, which was carried out without her mother being informed, involved the removal of her clothing including her underwear and her bending over. She was menstruating at the time and had told officers but they still proceeded with the search.

The three officers, trainee detective constable Kristina Linge, PC Victoria Wray and PC Rafal Szmydynski, had all denied gross misconduct.

Allegations of gross misconduct were found by the panel to have been proved in the case of Szmydynski – whom the panel said had taken a leading role throughout the interactions with school staff and Child Q, although he was not in the room for the search – and Linge, who was a PC at the time. Both were dismissed.

The panel, chaired by the Met commander Jason Prins, also found they had failed to ensure that an appropriate adult was present during the search, failed to obtain senior officer authorisation and failed to provide the child with a copy of the search record. They also did not respect her rights as a child.

Announcing the panel’s decision, Prins said that the actions of the police officers involved had done “enormous harm” to Child Q and significant harm to trust in the police, as well as being a breach of professional standards. The only appropriate outcome was dismissal without notice, he added.

Wray was found to have been in a “fundamentally different position” and engaged in misconduct but her failure to challenge or question colleagues did not satisfy the threshold for gross misconduct. She received a final written warning.

In a rare move, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) had instructed the lawyers presenting the case against the police officers and had put forward the case that race and lack of accountability were at the heart of why and how the teenager was strip-searched.

However, while the panel found that the incident was “a disastrous and negative interaction” between police and a black teenager, they concluded race had not been the reason Child Q was treated so badly.

The search was “disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary”, and it was “humiliating” for the child and made her feel “degraded”.

Child Q’s mother said in a statement: “Professionals wrongly treated my daughter as an adult and as a criminal and she is a changed person as a result.

“Was it because of her skin? Her hair? Why her? After waiting more than four years I have come every day to the gross misconduct hearing for answers and, although I am relieved that two of the officers were fired, I believe that the Metropolitan Police still has a huge amount of work to do if they are to win back the confidence of Black Londoners.”

Carolynn Gallwey, Child Q’s solicitor, said the family hoped the case might be a “turning point in how police treat black children in particular”, but added: “The statistics time and again show that black Londoners are disproportionately targeted by street-level policing powers but in this case the panel rejected those statistics as unreliable. It is, however, their job to produce reliable data and to act on what it shows, and that remains to be done.”

Elliot Gold, for the IOPC, told the panel on Thursday that the consequences of the incident had been to do damage and “real harm” to the relationship between the police and black communities.

He added that other harms had been caused in respect of the ability and willingness of schools to seek help from the police, and to Child Q herself, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Amanda Rowe, an IOPC director, said the incident had had a “significant and long-lasting impact” on the wellbeing of Child Q, who was now a young woman.

She said: “This case also led to widespread public concern, and we have heard directly from a range of community stakeholders about the impact that this incident has had on trust and confidence in policing.”

On the back of its investigation, the IOPC has made recommendations to the Home Office to amend strip-search laws to improve child safeguarding measures, including introducing a mandatory safeguarding referral for any child subject to a search exposing intimate parts.

Reacting to the panel’s findings, the Met commander Kevin Southworth said what happened to Child Q “should never have happened and was truly regrettable”.

He said: “While the officers involved did not act correctly, we acknowledge there were organisational failings. Training to our officers around strip-search and the type of search carried out on Child Q was inadequate, and our oversight of the power was also severely lacking.

“This left officers, often young in service or junior in rank, making difficult decisions in complex situations with little information, support or clear resources to help their decision-making.”



my view

Honestly, what I want to know is: Who the hell can we trust anymore? Because if even police officers — people who are supposed to uphold the law — think it’s acceptable to strip-search a 15-year-old Black girl, then the system isn’t just broken, it’s completely rotten. These are grown adults abusing their authority to violate a child, and somehow the conversation is still being watered down with words like “misconduct”? No. Let’s call it what it is — child sexual abuse. Plain and simple. If this were any other group of adults doing this to a child, they’d be in handcuffs before the day was over. So why is there even a debate?

This wasn’t some gray area or a procedural mistake — this was a deliberate act that dehumanized and traumatized a vulnerable girl. And let’s not ignore the obvious: if she weren’t Black, would this have even happened? We’re talking about people who had a duty of care, people who chose to humiliate a minor instead. That girl didn’t just have her rights violated — she was stripped of her dignity by the very people who should have been protecting it. And now, as usual, we’re expected to sit back and accept some internal investigation or disciplinary hearing while these predators get protected by bureaucracy and uniforms. It’s disgusting. It’s enraging. And it’s not enough.

They shouldn’t just be sacked. They should be charged, prosecuted, and imprisoned like any other predator would be. They should be put on a sex offenders register. Their careers should be over, and their freedom taken — because that’s the price you pay when you sexually violate a child. Enough with this system that shields abusers in uniform. Enough with calling it "misconduct" when it’s a damn crime. If the justice system refuses to act, then it’s complicit too. We need to stop pretending like these are isolated incidents — they’re not. They’re symptoms of a power structure that continues to fail Black children over and over again.

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Female prison officer suspended from London jail after 'inappropriate relationship' with inmate

 Police are investigating claims that HMP Feltham prison officer Katerina Tatus was part of an affair

A female prison officer has been suspended from a London jail over claims of an inappropriate relationship with an inmate.

Police are investigating claims that HMP Feltham prison officer Katerina Tatus was part of an affair.


The Sun reports that Ms Tatus was suspended after a staff member submitted an intelligence report.

A source told the newspaper that the prison officer was “marched to the gates by security” after being accuse of “having an affair and being too close to a prisoner.”

They added that if the accusations were true she had “ruined her career”.

They explained that it was unclear if the affair involved a Feltham inmate or if something had happened at another jail.


The source added that the suspension had “sent shockwaves around the jail” in Hounslow in west London explaining that Ms Tatus was popular with staff and inmates.

Approached about her suspension, Tatus told the Sun: “I didn’t do anything, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

On her Facebook page – which is now deactivated – Ms Tatus posed pictures of herself holidaying and partying with friends. Under one snap, a follower wrote: “Prettiest one in Feltham.”

Prison Service spokesperson told the newspaper that it would be inappropriate to comment on a live police investigation.

The news comes after a guard at HMP Wandsworth who was filmed having sex with an inmate inside a prison cell was jailed for 15 months earlier this year.

Linda De Sousa Abreu, 31, had sex with serial burglar Linton Weirich while another inmate, who was smoking cannabis, filmed the encounter.

Isleworth crown court heard Abreu, who was living in Fulham with her husband, had sex three times with Weirich over the course of a few days at the prison, where she was hired as one of the guards.

Crisis deepens at Parc Prison as six officers arrested

 Six officers at HMP Parc have been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office as police continue to investigate a series of serious allegations at the troubled Bridgend jail.

A spokeswoman for South Wales Police said the arrests followed “a series of incidents” at the privately run prison, which has faced growing scrutiny over violence, inmate deaths, and alleged corruption.

The latest arrests at the facility, which houses many offenders from Pembrokeshire, come as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into conduct at the Category B facility, operated by security firm G4S.

In a statement, police confirmed that during a second phase of arrests in January, the following individuals were detained on suspicion of misconduct in public office:

A 35-year-old man from Bridgend

A 40-year-old man from Swansea

A 38-year-old man from Barry

A 50-year-old man from Taibach

A 23-year-old woman from Cardiff

A 36-year-old man from Llanelli

Five have been bailed while enquiries continue, and one has been released under investigation.

The second wave of arrests follows an earlier operation in September 2024, when four Parc prison officers were arrested on suspicion of assault and misconduct in public office. Those arrests were linked to the discovery of social media messages allegedly shared between staff, reportedly referring to the excessive use of force and other serious misconduct.

Police have now confirmed that no charges were brought in that first phase, but the investigation remains live.

Detective Chief Inspector Dean Taylor said officers are working closely with G4S as part of the inquiry.

A spokeswoman for the company said: “We are aware a decision has been made not to proceed further with a number of initial cases. It is not appropriate for us to comment on other cases which are ongoing, but we will continue to support police colleagues.”

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that police are probing a separate allegation that a group of officers at Parc assaulted an inmate, leaving him with serious injuries including possible broken ribs and heavy bruising. The incident was reported last Saturday and remains under investigation.

G4S has declined to comment directly on the alleged assault.

The prison has been engulfed in controversy over the past year, with a steady stream of reports highlighting issues with violence, drug use, staff shortages, and inmate deaths.

In the wake of last year’s riot at Parc, G4S replaced the prison’s director by mutual agreement. The role was taken over by Will Styles, formerly of G4S-run HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire.

Earlier this week, The Herald reported that police are investigating an alleged sexual assault on a young inmate on X1 Wing, said to have involved coercion and scalding.

Zack Griffiths of the HMP Prisons Justice Group, speaking about that case, said: “A vulnerable young person was left exposed to a violent, dangerous offender, and the consequences have been devastating. This isn’t just an individual crime—it is a catastrophic failure of the prison system to safeguard those in its care.”

The Ministry of Justice’s anti-corruption unit is working alongside South Wales Police as part of the wider investigation into the jail.

HMP Parc is the largest prison in Wales and one of the few in the UK operated by a private firm. The growing number of allegations has sparked renewed calls for an independent inquiry into its management and oversight.

In addition to the ongoing police investigations, the prison has recorded multiple deaths over the past 12 months. At least eight inmates are reported to have died in that period. Some of those deaths are understood to be drug-related or suspected suicides, though not all have been officially confirmed.

Campaigners and whistleblowers have warned that conditions inside Parc have become dangerously unstable, with claims that vulnerable prisoners are frequently left without adequate supervision or support.

None of the officers arrested to date have been charged, and all remain innocent unless proven otherwise.

The Herald has contacted G4S and the Ministry of Justice for further comment.

Ex-PC had sex with colleague in police station

 A former constable who had sex with a colleague in rooms at a police station was found to have committed gross misconduct.

Ex PC Keith Gazzard, from Essex Police roads policing unit, would have been sacked if he had not resigned, a misconduct hearing found.

The accusations, including instigating an inappropriate relationship, failing to declare that relationship, sexual activity at work and while on duty, were all proven.

Assistant Chief Officer Fiona Henderson said: "Former PC Gazzard exploited his position as a respected and long serving officer and it will have taken huge courage for PC A to come forward."

The hearing took place at Chelmsford Civic Centre in May.

It heard the behaviour came to light when the former officer was accused of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague, PC A.

The panel heard PC Gazzard had been a police officer for about 22 years at the time and was based at South Woodham Ferrers Police Station.

It also heard PC A, who was a special constable, felt she could not say no to PC Gazzard.

She felt if she spoke to anyone about the relationship, she would be punished and it would hinder her career.

The panel noted the "obvious disparity in length of service and experience between the two officers".

'Huge courage'

It heard about a number of incidents, including sexual relations in various rooms at South Woodham Ferrers Police Station between 2021 and 2022.

PC Gazzard also once drove to PC A's home address, while in uniform and on duty, for sex.

They last had sexual relations at a hotel room in London in May 2023, when PC Gazzard was again on duty.

The panel ruled the former police officer, who did not attend the hearing, had breached the professional standards of behaviour relating to duties and responsibilities, authority, respect, and courtesy, and discreditable conduct.

It determined the actions amounted to gross misconduct and he would have been dismissed if he had not already resigned.

Assistant Chief Officer Fiona Henderson, who chaired the panel, praised PC A for reporting her colleague's actions.

"Former PC Gazzard exploited his position as a respected and long serving officer and it will have taken huge courage for PC A to come forward," she said.

"Our colleagues should be able to go about their work protecting our neighbourhoods, keeping the public safe, and securing justice for victims of crime, without being worried about being harassed."

Monday, 16 June 2025

A true story about why Prision officers shouldn't be armed

 An Account of an Incident at HMP Parc: A Case Against Tasers and Pepper Spray

The following account details an incident that occurred at HMP Parc, offering a perspective on the use of force by prison officers and arguing against the provision of tasers and pepper spray. The narrative is based on a first-person account, aiming to provide clarity and context to the events.

Background and Context

As I  have spent the past 35 years in prison, I have been diagnosed with several conditions, including personality disorder traits, PTSD Type-2 Complex, depression, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia. This context is crucial in understanding the potential for heightened emotional responses and the need for sensitive handling in stressful situations.

The Precipitating Incident

On June 6th, I was informed by two administrative officers that my mother's phone number would be removed for eight weeks. This was due to a three-way call with my probation officer, this is because the Hornchurch probation office has a call centre, and states we must press numbers during the call, which cannot be done by the prison telephones. I have been doing this for the last 4-5 years. which was intended to arrange upcoming meetings related to my parole. This initial action caused distress, setting the stage for the subsequent events.

Escalation and Confrontation

Following a series of conflicting updates regarding the reinstatement of the phone number, l sought to speak with a unit manager on Friday, June 13th. I was confronted by two members of staff. I would describe these officers as young and lacking life or prison experience. During this confrontation, I  was given a direct order to return to my cell, and I felt intimidated and threatened.

The Incident and Use of Force

My emotional state deteriorated, leading to self-harm. I cut my wrist, and blood began to flow. In this state, the officers responded by physically engaging with me. the officers began to bring me to the floor, kicking my legs out from under me, and one officer grabbed me by the throat, then the other officers began to pile in.  I  maintained that I was not resisting, but the officers insisted that I was.. After the incident, I was frog-marched to my cell by several officers, while I was still bleeding profusely, and they pushed me in and locked me in my cell before even thinking of first aid for me. Healthcare was provided approximately five minutes later.

Argument Against Tasers and Pepper Spray

The core argument of this account is against the use of tasers and pepper spray by prison officers, and the lack of help and support by officers.. I believe that if these weapons were available, they would have been used in this situation. This account emphasizes that I was in crisis and needed support, not further aggression.









Introduction

In recent years, HMP Parc has faced significant scrutiny due to the alarming number of deaths among its inmates. With 17 deaths reported in 2024 alone, this privately run prison in Bridgend has become a focal point for discussions about prison conditions and the treatment of inmates.

A Call for Review

The statement emphasizes the need for a thorough review of all deaths occurring within HMP Parc. It suggests that many of these tragedies could have been prevented if prison staff had performed their duties effectively. The call to action is clear: families and loved ones of deceased prisoners are urged to come forward and share their experiences.

The Reality of Prison Life

With 35 years of experience behind bars, I  have a deep concern for the treatment of inmates. The assertion is made that wearing a uniform does not grant immunity from accountability. The message is that prison staff must be held responsible for their actions, especially when it comes to the welfare of those in their care.

The Need for Change

The article highlights the importance of addressing the systemic issues within HMP Parc. It points out that many officers have faced suspension, indicating a troubling pattern of misconduct. The call to action encourages families to unite and advocate for their loved ones, ensuring that they are not just seen as numbers in a system.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the plea for justice resonates strongly with those affected by the tragedies at HMP Parc. The message is clear: it is time to fight for the rights and dignity of all prisoners. The hope is that by raising awareness and demanding accountability, meaningful changes can be made to prevent further loss of life.

R.I.P. to all those who have passed in HMP Parc and other prisons. Their stories deserve to be heard, and their families deserve justice.