Strip-search PC felt 'she was doing right thing'

A Metropolitan Police officer who strip-searched a 15-year-old black schoolgirl has told a misconduct panel she had been "following the lead of other officers".

The girl, known as Child Q, was strip-searched at her school by PC Victoria Wray and a female colleague in Hackney, east London, on 3 December 2020 after her teachers wrongly suspected her of carrying cannabis.

The search involved her removing all of her clothing and exposing intimate parts while she was menstruating, the panel has been told.

PC Wray apologised to Child Q and her family for the search but had thought she was "doing the right thing". She and two other officers deny gross misconduct over their treatment of the girl.

Giving evidence to the misconduct panel, PC Wray, who undertook the search alongside PC Kristina Linge, admitted a series of failings in her handling of the incident.

Robert Morris, representing her, asked: "Do you think you were performing an overly intrusive search?"

"I thought the skipper had authorised it, I thought the officers at the scene had covered all bases," she replied.

Asked whether she was aware of certain stereotypes relating to black people, PC Wray replied: "If I am aware of the stereotypes, I don't use those stereotypes to make any decisions.

"Those decisions are purely based on facts, on my surroundings, on the intel; I prefer to make very objective decisions."

The panel heard records showed the majority of the individuals stopped and searched by PC Wray were black or Asian.

Mr Morris continued: "Do you think your actions have been unconsciously biased by race?"

"No, not at all," she replied.

Asked if she thought the search should have taken place at all, PC Wray responded: "No."

"There were so many things that should've been done," she told the panel. "We should've spoken to the teachers more, we should've phoned mum, we should've spoken to the sergeant more."

Mr Morris went on to ask why she did not stop to do those things and reassess the situation, to which PC Wray replied: "I was just following the lead of other officers.

"It was just such a quick interaction; I am sorry and I should've stopped and I should've thought and I should've checked, I am really sorry," she added.

The officer, who was 25 at the time of the incident, said of the search: "I never intended it to be humiliating and degrading."

The hearing continues.

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