Met police officers investigated over black woman's assault claims

Eight Metropolitan police officers are under investigation after a black female student said she was punched repeatedly while on the floor during an arrest and was later strip-searched and assaulted again.

The incident happened during lockdown in May in Lewisham, south-east London. The charges against the woman for allegedly obstructing a drugs search were later dropped.

The police watchdog said its investigation would examine if racial bias was a factor in the woman’s treatment.

Shortly after the incident, video showing officers grappling with the woman surfaced on social media, where she can be repeatedly heard shouting: “I can’t breathe.”

Concern about the incident and about the use of force against black people by the Met, Britain’s biggest police force, triggered an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Two of the officers are under investigation for gross misconduct and have been placed on restricted duties. The Met said one is an officer with the Territorial Support Group, and the other is a detention officer who is subject to a gross misconduct investigation relating to the search of the woman in custody.

The six other officers are from the TSG and are under investigation for potential misconduct. The Met said this related to the “failure to challenge the actions of an officer”.

The woman who was 28 at the time of the incident, is seen in the two-minute video on the ground with six officers pinning her down.

News that eight officers were under investigation came after the woman told her side of the story to the BBC’s Newsnight programme.

She said she went out to get a takeaway, and was pulled out of the car she was in by an officer before it had come to a stop.

She said: “Having a male officer using all his body weight, burying his knee into my neck and using all the power within him to try to cut off my air supply … I just remember things turning like they looked a bit radioactive to me because I couldn’t … I knew that I was losing consciousness.”

The woman said one officer officer “smirked” and responded to her shouts of “I can’t breathe” by saying: “If you can talk, you can breathe.” She was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a drug search and inside Lewisham police station was subjected to a strip-search in the presence of male officers.

She told Newsnight: “They didn’t even tell me they were going to strip-search me. It literally just happened when in the presence of the male and female officers with my cell door wide open, so people were passing. There were male officers holding parts of my body.

“I was pinned down again, I’ll say about five, six, seven officers. I couldn’t breathe. I kept begging them to stop. It was the same officer that was punching me outside the restaurant who still went on to punch me while I was fully unclothed, and restrained for no justifiable reason. She just hit me about, I say, minimum eight times.”

The woman said she resisted as she was trying to protect a wound she had after surgery.

In a statement, the IOPC said: “So far, we have recovered CCTV footage, body-worn video footage, the footage shared online and have taken statements from several witnesses.

“We are examining the circumstances of the woman’s arrest and the use of force on her. Our investigation is also looking at the woman’s subsequent treatment in custody.

“It should be noted that the serving of a [disciplinary] notice in no way indicates disciplinary proceedings will necessarily follow.

“To uphold public confidence in the police complaints system, we are investigating the use of stop and search tactics in this incident and whether the actions of those officers were appropriate and proportionate and followed approved police policies. We are also investigating if racial profiling or discrimination played a part in the incident.”

The Met said a man and woman were arrested “after a vehicle made off from police in Lewisham High Street on 9 May”. The incident happened before the death of George Floyd in the US that triggered widespread revulsion and the Black Lives Matter protests in the UK and US.

Ch Supt Rob Atkin, of the Met police, said: “The Met continues to co-operate with the IOPC’s investigation team to ensure that all the facts are established. Eight officers are under investigation in relation to this incident; two of whom have been placed on restricted duties.

“In the small minority of cases where force is used, an officer must properly record this and account for why the level of force used was lawful, proportionate and necessary in the circumstances.”