Be wary of lone policemen, warns London head teacher

Fionnuala Kennedy said she was "breathless with anger"

A head teacher has warned pupils at her all-girls' school "not to allow a lone policeman to approach you at any time".

Fionnuala Kennedy, head of Wimbledon High School in south London, made the comments after the David Carrick case.

Met Police officer Carrick admitted 49 sexual offences, including 24 counts of rape, across two decades. He has been dismissed by the force.

Ms Kennedy said the case made her concerned about how to empower her students while also keeping them safe.

The head teacher at the independent school wrote her comments in a blog post after Carrick's crimes became public knowledge earlier this week.

• The serial rapist and abuser in a police uniform

• Police trust 'hanging by thread' over Carrick case

She called the case "horrific" and said that she was "breathless with anger" about "the utter failing of the Met Police to protect girls and women".

Her remarks come as the head of the Met Police, Sir Mark Rowley, published a plan to reform the force over the next two years, after a series of scandals involving rogue officers, including Carrick.

Sir Mark said he was "determined to win back Londoners' trust" and was asking the public to comment on the plan over the next three months. The Met said its priorities included tackling violence against women and girls and identifying misconduct in its ranks.

'Anger of my students'

In her blog post, Ms Kennedy also reflected on Andrew Tate's recent arrest - the social media influencer is being investigated over allegations of sexual assault and exploitation, which he denies.

Ms Kennedy said that both cases made her feel "tired", "angry" and "somewhat defeated".

Andrew Tate (third from right) is currently in detention in Romania

Ms Kennedy told BBC London that the anger she expressed in her post was really "the anger of my students, and I'm the channel through which that is expressed".

She said she thought it was "important for women to express anger when they feel it" as they were often told it was an "inappropriate" or "shameful" emotion.

Ms Kennedy said she felt it was her place to offer the advice she gave in her blog "as long as parents are in the loop".

Ms Kennedy said she would still encourage her pupils to approach a police officer if they were in trouble

She clarified that she was "not suggesting for a moment that girls don't trust the police as an entire establishment" and she was not discouraging girls from finding a police officer if they were in trouble.

But she defended her warning to pupils that they should be wary, saying "the police have done a good enough job on their own of developing distrust from the public".

Ms Kennedy called for the Met Police to "address their cultural issues and make sure that we feel that they are taking due diligence to protect our vulnerable people".

In response to the head teacher's remarks, the Met referred the BBC to a statement by Sir Mark issued soon after Carrick pleaded guilty. The Met commissioner - whose statement preceded the comments made about his reform plans - admitted that the force had "let women and girls down and indeed we've let Londoners down".

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