"In the first report of Elish Angiolini's inquiry into this dreadful sequence of events, published in February last year, she made the eminently sensible recommendation that any individual with a caution or conviction for a sexual offence should be rejected during police vetting. It seemed the very least that should happen, yet we've learned from Lady Angiolini's second report this week that the recommendation has yet to be implemented."
"Couzens should never have been a police officer and neither should David Carrick, who was sent to prison for life in 2023 for committing sexual offences against more than a dozen women while serving in the same force. Angiolini's latest report offers an insight into the extent of the problem, revealing that checks against the police national database in 2023-24 led to 461 police officers, staff and volunteers being referred to an appropriate authority."
Calls arose to remove sexual predators from police forces after PC Wayne Couzens was charged with the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021. A recommendation required rejection at vetting of any individual with a caution or conviction for a sexual offence. Implementation was delayed: police chiefs agreed a blanket ban only after 18 months and initial Home Office draft regulations omitted it. The Home Office will include the ban but not retrospectively. Past missed opportunities allowed officers like Couzens and David Carrick to serve. Database checks in 2023-24 led to 461 referrals, nine criminal and 88 disciplinary investigations.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]