Letter to the Home Secretary

Dear Home Secretary,

The government’s focus on reducing Male Violence Against Women and Girls (MVAWG) is very much welcomed, but we are extremely concerned that there are essential aspects of this issue that do not seem to be at the forefront of current plans.

Clearly, the police are an essential part of the front line in tackling the appalling levels of MVAWG. However, it has become apparent that police forces, and in particular the London Metropolitan Police Force, are unable to offer women any sense of safety and security in the work of dealing with the high level of such abuse. It is shocking enough that the current vetting processes do not screen out male applicants who might fail to perform this part of their job appropriately. But further than that, it may also admit those who may be perpetrators of such abuse themselves. It is extremely distressing that when such applicants are identified after they have become serving police officers, they cannot be dismissed.

Sergeant Lino Di Maria was the subject of a string of allegations of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse. It is well-known that these offences, which rely heavily on the testimony of one traumatised individual, often do not reach court (because they are seen as having insufficiently high evidence, or because the woman concerned is too traumatised to give evidence or lacks trust in the process) and when they do, the ‘insufficient evidence’ i.e. the victim/survivor being the only prosecution witness, often leads to a not-guilty result. So it proved for Sergeant Di Maria, but the Metropolitan Police were clear that the allegations from several different women called his vetting into question, and withdrew it. He went to court to overturn the decision.

The High Court ruling, for which Di Maria had the support of the Metropolitan Police Federation, stated that it was not legal for the vetting of a police officer to be removed when his offence had not met the very high bar necessary for a criminal conviction. On 12th February, the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, was quoted[1] as saying ‘We now have no mechanism to rid the Met of officers who were not fit to hold vetting – those who cannot be trusted to work with women, or those who cannot be trusted to enter the homes of vulnerable people.’

High levels of misogyny have become all too evident within the police force. Examples include the case of police officers who circulated photographs of the bodies of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry; the murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a Met officer who had previously exposed himself to several women; the recent case of Detective Constable David Fall[1] who had a history of being a domestic abuser and ‘fortunately’ resigned before being sacked; and many more.

We are glad that the police are developing a national hub[2] for the approach to tackling to MVAWG, but it has to be possible for police services to dismiss officers who demonstrate misogynistic attitudes even if they have not been convicted in a court of law. Given the recent case of Di Maria, it is clearly essential that the government acts to change the legal structures that prevent such men being sacked.

We know from the work of Joan Smith[3] that terrorists usually have a history of domestic abuse before going on to other violent crimes. Any domestic abuse, including coercive control and other non-physical forms, should be a red flag. This and other expressions of misogyny are incompatible with the attitudes and standards required of police officers if MVAWG is to be tackled seriously.

We call on you to ensure, without delay, that police forces are given the power to remove the vetting from police officers who demonstrate attitudes entirely incompatible with the government’s intention to achieve a major reduction in MVAWG.

Yours sincerely

Sally Jackson

Global lead for Male Violence Against Women

Trustee

FiLiA

[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14380481/Met-Police-detective-threatened-rape-partner-violent-abuse.html

[2] https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/funding-confirmed-for-national-violence-and-public-protection-centre

[3] https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/joan-smith/home-grown/9781787476066/

[1] https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/absurd-met-police-cannot-sack-officers-not-fit-to-hold-vetting-commissioner/ar-AA1yOvdL?ocid=BingNewsSerp