Category Archives: Metropolitan police

Met seeks further bid to challenge high court ruling on Sarah Everard vigil

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Scotland Yard seeking permission from court of appeal to challenge ruling that Met’s decisions in run-up to vigil were ‘not in accordance with the law’

The Metropolitan police is seeking a further attempt to challenge the high court’s ruling that officers breached the rights of organisers of a vigil for Sarah Everard last year.

High court judges earlier this month refused the Met permission to appeal against its ruling in March about the force’s handling of the planned event.

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Met officer accused of paralysing black man loses bid for anonymity

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Imran Mahmood was charged with grievous bodily harm after Jordan Walker-Brown was left paralysed from the chest down

A Metropolitan police officer accused of grievous bodily harm after a black man was left paralysed from the chest down has been named after losing a bid to keep his name from the public domain.

Imran Mahmood, 35, was charged with grievous bodily harm on 31 March and had sought anonymity from Westminster magistrates court after expressing concern of Jordan Walker-Brown’s alleged links to criminal gangs, according to the PA news agency, which sought submission of the officer’s name alongside other media organisations.

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Steve Baker says Boris Johnson ‘should be long gone’ as MPs are set to vote for inquiry into claims PM misled parliament – live

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Latest updates: Senior Tory says PM should go after No 10 U-turn means MPs are set to vote for inquiry into the PM

In the Commons Mark Spencer, the leader of the Commons, has just announced that Tory MPs will get a free vote in the debate today.

That means the government may not have enough votes to pass it amendments. It could therefore decide not to press it to a vote.

Can I say to the leader of the house ... I greatly struggled with lockdowns, and the legacy of Covid. It has pumped so much poison into the veins of this country and the veins of this place?

Can we please try and find a way today not to have a fractious debate and a division? I believe genuinely that the prime minister is a good and decent man and he can make the case to the privileges committee directly without having this house to divide and yet more poison be pumped into public life. Please the chief work find a way of making that happen?

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Met police delay updates on Partygate fines until after May local elections

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Spokesman says investigations to continue but further information will not be released until after 5 May

No further updates on Partygate fines will be issued by the Metropolitan police until after May’s local elections, the force has said.

A Met spokesman said: “Whilst the investigation will continue during the pre-election period, due to the restrictions around communicating before the May local elections, we will not provide further updates until after 5 May.”

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Metropolitan police officer found guilty of child sex offences

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Francois Olwage convicted of grooming after arranging to meet undercover officer he believed to be 13-year-old girl

A Metropolitan police counter-terrorism officer has been found guilty of three child sex offences after he arranged to a meet a 13-year-old girl for sex when he was “on duty working from home”.

Francois Olwage, a detective constable who was serving with the Met’s specialist operations unit, was convicted of grooming someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl he had met on the Lycos online chat forum.

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Cressida Dick to leave Met police with £166,000 payoff

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Met commissioner to step down on 10 April, with search for replacement expected to take months

Cressida Dick will leave her role as commissioner of the Metropolitan police with a payoff of £166,000, the Guardian understands.

Dick announced her resignation in February after clashing with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. She officially ceases to be commissioner on 24 April.

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Partygate may prove to be the scandal that won’t go away for Boris Johnson

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Analysis: Scotland Yard issuing fixed-penalty notices will only revive doubts in PM’s leadership among Tory backbenchers

It was an electrifying development that has given renewed hope to some Tory rebels hoping to oust the prime minister.

After all the bluff and bluster from Boris Johnson, the Metropolitan police announcement of 20 fixed-penalty notices for people over Downing Street parties is concrete confirmation that the authorities believe the rules were broken during lockdown.

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No 10 lockdown breaches: Met police expected to issue first fines

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Exclusive: Scotland Yard investigation reportedly finds laws were broken at heart of government

The first fines for lockdown breaches in Downing Street are expected to be issued imminently after Scotland Yard concluded that laws were broken at the heart of government, sources have told the Guardian.

Multiple government insiders said the Metropolitan police had made referrals for the first tranche of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) connected with parties and gatherings being investigated by police in No 10 and the Cabinet Office. It is understood the Met are expected to issue around 20 fines related to the most straightforward cases, though more are expected to follow.

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Cressida Dick to leave Met police role in April, says Priti Patel

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Home secretary says deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House will cover until successor appointed

The Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, will leave her job in April, months before her replacement is named, the home secretary has confirmed.

Dick resigned last month but agreed to stay on in the post until arrangements to appoint her successor had been finalised.

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Goverment agrees to review of how Cressida Dick was ousted as Met chief

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Review may look at communications between police and City Hall after clash with Sadiq Khan but will not ‘change any outcomes’

Cressida Dick has won a victory after the government agreed to a review of how she came to leave office after a clash with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.

The Home Office is expected to announce it will ask Sir Tom Winsor to examine how Dick came to be ousted as commissioner of the Metropolitan police last month, a government source confirmed.

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Police will not investigate sexual harassment claims against Noel Clarke

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Met police decided not to proceed after ‘thorough assessment’ of allegations relating to actor

Claims by 20 women of sexual harassment and bullying against the actor Noel Clarke will not lead to a criminal police investigation, according to the Metropolitan police.

Clarke was the subject of complaints of groping and sexual misconduct in incidents between 2004 and 2019. He is best known for his work on the “hood” series of films, beginning with Kidulthood in 2006, and the BBC’s Doctor Who.

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Two Met officers who strip-searched school girl removed from frontline duties

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Police commander also admits Met has problem with officers treating inner London children as ‘adults’

Two of the five officers who were involved in the traumatic strip search of a 15-year-old black girl in her school in Hackney, London, have been removed from frontline duties, the Metropolitan police has confirmed.

The admission came at a community meeting on Wednesday evening as anger over the treatment of the girl, known as Child Q, continues. The meeting was originally supposed to take place in person but had to be moved online after the police force could not find a venue. More than 250 people attended, with more wanting to but unable to join because of the meeting’s limit.

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Downing Street parties: Met police begin interviewing witnesses

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News comes after questionnaires were sent to more than 100 people thought to be involved in lockdown gatherings

Boris Johnson is facing a possible police interview over lockdown breaches in Downing Street as the Metropolitan police said they intended to start questioning witnesses after sending out questionnaires to more than 100 people.

But the police statement – issued two months since inquiries began – suggests officers have not yet found breaches that meet the evidentiary threshold for fixed-penalty notices to be issued without further interviews. No FPNs have been issued so far, the force said.

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Met to appeal against ruling on handling of Sarah Everard vigil

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High court last week ruled that Metropolitan police had breached rights of vigil organisers

The Metropolitan police will appeal against a high court ruling that they breached the rights of the organisers of a planned vigil for Sarah Everard in their handling of the event.

The Met said it had “taken time to consider with great care the decision itself and the wider implications for policing” and planned to appeal against the ruling “to resolve what’s required by law when policing protests and events in the future”, in a statement published on Friday.

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Sarah Everard’s family pay tribute on first anniversary of her murder

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‘We miss her all the time,’ say relatives of woman killed by serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens

The family of Sarah Everard have paid tribute to her on the first anniversary of her murder by a police officer, saying she was “wonderful and we miss her all the time” and that they “live with the sadness of our loss”.

Everard, 33 was abducted, raped and killed by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens as she walked home in south London on 3 March last year.

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England and Wales police bosses will not admit to institutional racism in their forces

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Despite vowing change, plans set to be released by the NPCC will oppose an admission of institutional racism

Police leaders in England and Wales will decide not to accept that their forces are still institutionally racist, as they try to battle their way out of a race crisis.

Chief constables began considering a public admission in December and have held a series of private meetings among forces to try to find agreement.

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Met police admit tweet critical of Sadiq Khan was unacceptable

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London mayor denies claim he gave Cressida Dick ultimatum over Charing Cross officers

Scotland Yard has been forced to admit it was “unacceptable” for one of its official Twitter accounts to apparently criticise the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, leading him to accuse the force of amplifying misleading information.

Khan tackled the suggestion – made in a now-deleted tweet by the verified “Metropolitan Police taskforce” – that he did not understand the rules for disciplining officers.

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Half of Londoners unhappy with Met at end of Cressida Dick’s term, polls show

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Confidence in force fell sharply during past five years, with 68% saying Met did a good job in 2017

Public confidence in the Metropolitan police has fallen sharply in the five years Cressida Dick has been leading Britain’s biggest force, figures published on Wednesday show.

Only 51% of those in London said they believed the Met did a good job in their local area, down 17 points compared with the last survey before Dick became Met commissioner in April 2017.

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Met investigating cash-for-honours claims linked to Prince’s Foundation

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Metropolitan police have launched investigation into allegations linked to Prince Charles charity

Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into cash-for-honours allegations linked to the Prince of Wales’s charity the Prince’s Foundation.

In a brief statement, the Metropolitan police said it had launched the investigation after media reports alleging offers of help were made to secure honours and citizenship for a Saudi national.

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Senior Met officer acknowledges racism problem in UK’s largest force

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Bas Javid says racism is an issue ‘but what I won’t do is describe all of the organisation as a racist organisation’

A senior Metropolitan police officer has said racism is a problem in the country’s largest force.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Bas Javid, the brother of the health secretary, Sajid Javid, acknowledged “people who have racist views and are racist” were among the force’s staff.

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