Police naked strip-search woman receives apology over complaints

A woman who was strip searched by male police officers has received an apology from the Metropolitan Police for how her complaint was handled.

The 26-year-old was taken to a London police station in March 2011 after behaving erratically outside a club.

She said her drink had been spiked, and was later awarded £37,000 in compensation for how she was treated.

A Met Police spokesman said there were "service failings" in dealing with her complaints about her treatment.

Sarah - not her real name - has now told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, in her first interview, about how badly the ordeal has affected her.

She said the police officers involved had "ruined" her life, and that she still wants an apology from each of them.

The 26-year-old, born and raised in the capital, had gone in the afternoon to a club in west London.

She had had a brief drink with a man she met at the bar, before leaving to sit with her friends.

But a while later Sarah began to feel "distressed", and fainted in the club's bathroom.

She believes she was drugged, and said she had only had two drinks before feeling unwell.

'Stripped naked'

Disorientated, she began to lash out and was taken outside, where she ran among the traffic.

When police were called, she tried to fight them off, and was arrested.

"I was taken to a cell, where I had my clothing forcibly taken off me by four male police officers and one female police officer," she told the programme.

"These officers were sitting on top of me, cutting off my bra and effectively molesting me. Let's call it what it is, because they were out of line. That was not something that was within their duty, or anything that they were supposed to be doing."

"I was then left in the cell naked as the day I was born, whilst the images were being broadcast on CCTV to the desk area, where everybody else could see that I was naked."

Sarah says officers subjected her to a particularly humiliating moment.

"I was on my period and a tampon was taken out of my body. It was that revolting," she told the programme.

"It's just wrong. These people had invaded my privacy and my personal space. I thought I was being raped."

Sarah now suffers from social anxiety as a result of her ordeal

Eventually Sarah was taken to hospital, during which time she fully regained her senses.

She was brought back to the station and spent the next night in a cell.

"I kept being told that if I just spoke to whoever it was from the police - but they said if I was demanding that I wanted a lawyer, then it would take much longer. Basically, they tried to put me off having a lawyer present."

But Sarah called a relative for advice, who told her to insist on seeing a lawyer.

One came and she was eventually released, but she was charged with four counts of assault on a police constable.

This was later thrown out of court due to insufficient evidence.

She says when she began to make formal complaints about her treatment, her aim was "an apology because I feel incredibly violated".

Police and strip-searches

• Police carrying out strip-searches must be the same sex as the detainee

• There must be at least two people present other than the detainee

• Reasonable efforts should be made to secure a detainee's co-operation and minimise embarrassment

• The search should not take place in an area where people, including anyone of the opposite sex, can watch

• Detainees should not normally have to remove all their clothes at the same time

Source: Home Office code of practice

Sarah submitted three complaints about her treatment, the latest in March 2015.

The Met has now said that there were "service failings" in regard to how Sarah's previous complaints were handled.

And a spokesman for the Met's Serious Misconduct Investigation Unit has now offered a "personal apology" to Sarah, adding that "lessons have been learnt and there are systems now in place to prevent this reoccurring again".

But Sarah says this "seemed to me like a half-hearted apology letter four-and-a-half years later".

"And it just doesn't cut the mustard, because what I think would have gone some way to helping me deal with this, and maybe gain some closure from this is, a verbal apology from each one of the offending officers."

Police disciplined

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "The MPS appreciates that individual cases such as this can undermine the public's trust and confidence in it, which is why the MPS takes the lessons learnt from this case seriously and routinely reminds officers of the protocols for strip searches."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission found in 2013 that the search "was carried out without adequate justification" and in breach of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, which says officers carrying out a strip search must be the same sex as the person being searched.

Sarah has now left the UK to live abroad.

"My social anxiety's gone through the roof. It's really scary, because that's not who I was.

"I guess it's who I am."

The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.