'Why are you arresting me?' Domestic abuse victim's custody ordeal

An inquiry into alleged abuses within Greater Manchester Police custody heard evidence from several women

A woman has told how after being choked by her husband she was herself arrested and given a “humiliating” intimate search.

Her story is one of several given to Dame Vera Baird's inquiry into alleged abuses within Greater Manchester Police custody.

The domestic abuse victim could be seen on CCTV asking one of the force's officers: “Why are you arresting me when I’ve come to ask you for help?”

The woman – referred to in the report as Maria – was visiting Manchester with her husband in May 2023.

'Hurt and upset'

She needed to return home the same night to avoid breaching a condition of her bail.

In a hotel room they had booked, her drunk husband choked her until she passed out, the report said.

Someone in a neighbouring room heard the noise and called the police.

They arrived to find Maria’s husband gone and Maria “drunk, hurt and upset”.

Dame Vera’s report added that Maria explained she needed to go home because of her bail conditions but was told she should stay by police, who went off to find and arrest her husband.

Greater Manchester Police has apologised and said it accepted the inquiry's findings

The next morning, Maria went to Pendleton police station and rang the buzzer a number of times, losing her temper at the lack of response and starting to swear.

“Maria later faced a charge of malicious prosecution for these calls,” Dame Vera’s report said.

A GMP officer checked the Police National Computer and spoke to the force covering the area where Maria lived, and the force revealed Maria “had made attempts to pervert the course of justice, drank, concealed items to self-harm and assaulted officers”.

When Maria tried to leave the police station, she was dragged back in, according to Dame Vera’s report.

It added: “This recent victim of domestic abuse and historic vicitim of rape was then strip searched, ostensibly in search of the vape she dropped out of her trousers in the police station yard, and because of the other force’s officer’s reference to her ‘concealing things’.”

Maria was then subjected to an intimate search that left her “humiliated and demeaned”, the report added.