Police subjected me to a violent and degrading strip search after I was arrested for offering a legal advice card to a 15-year-old who was being stopped and searched. 

With the help of my lawyers, I am seeking to bring civil proceedings against the Metropolitan Police in relation to the unlawful strip search. I am pursuing a claim of assault & battery and under the Human Rights Act 1998 for breaches of Articles 3 (the right to freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment) and 8 (the right to private life) of the European Convention of Human Rights. 

This is the only legal channel left open to me after six years of engaging with the police complaints system. Although my complaint was eventually upheld by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the resulting gross misconduct hearing against the custody sergeant who ordered my strip search was a farce. The misconduct panel dismissed the case against Sergeant Howard without even bothering to question him.

The Misconduct Panel’s logic would mean that anyone suspected of having a mental health problem could be forcibly stripped naked.

I fear that the way the police have closed ranks in response to my complaint points to a broader problem regarding the abuse of strip search powers to punish and intimidate people. Most of the people who suffer this abuse will be denied any opportunity to speak out.

Please help me draw attention to this issue and hold police accountable by sharing this page on social media and contributing if you can.

My case against the police is strong. However, bringing a civil action against them will expose me to a massive financial risk. The default position in civil proceedings is that the loser pays the legal costs of the winner, and the police’s legal costs are likely to be enormous. This is a further way in which the system is stacked against members of the public trying to hold police accountable.

I have been offered After the Event Insurance (“ATE”) insurance to cover me against these costs risks, on the basis that my case is likely to succeed. However, the outcome in civil proceedings is never certain. This means I cannot realistically proceed with the case unless I am insured against the financial risk of losing.

I will need to raise at least £3,920 to pay the premium required to secure the first stage of ATE insurance. I will then need to continue raising funds as the case progresses to cover Court fees and extensions of the ATE insurance protection. 

My legal case 

Arrest

On a Spring evening in 2013, I was on an estate in Hackney, East London, when I saw a group of police officers surrounding a young boy. The boy was clearly distressed and asking for his mother. I had noticed police stopping other black people on the estate and I was aware that racial profiling by the police is a serious problem,* so I was concerned by what I was seeing.

I spoke with the boy and tried to give him a ‘Know Your Rights’ card with some legal advice on it, but the police officers stopped me by grabbing my arm and pushing me back. They then arrested me, claiming I had obstructed and assaulted them, although this was untrue.

The officer in charge described me as a ‘bleeding heart lefty’ and ‘some sort of socialist’ as well as a ‘very silly girl’. 

I was later acquitted of all charges.

The magistrates found that I had not obstructed the police and they explicitly stated in their judgement, ‘We believe Ms Duff’s account’ in relation to the alleged assaults.

The boy was found to have a knife on him which I had not been aware of when I intervened.

During my arrest and transfer to Stoke Newington Police Station I acted in the spirit of ‘passive resistance’: I went limp rather than walking and I did not talk to the police except to ask for a doctor.

I was non-compliant because I felt the police were behaving like bullies. I wanted to show that I did not consent to what they were doing.

Strip search

On arriving at the police station, I was subjected to a strip search which was brutal and traumatic.

I was pinned to the floor of a cell by three female officers. I had my hands cuffed behind my back and my legs tied together while they cut off my clothes with scissors. They ripped out my earrings, grabbed my breasts roughly while turning me over, and even touched me between my legs, apparently looking for genital piercings. During the search, I could hear them talking with male officers who were standing by the open door.  

I sustained injuries including cuts and bruises on my arms and hands and a five-inch cut on my collarbone.

The officers also made mocking comments, some of which were caught on CCTV and noted as inappropriate by the IOPC report.

When the officers had me completely naked, they put me in a paper suit which didn’t do up properly, so my breasts were partly exposed, and they carried me like that through the station.

I believe Sergeant Howard ordered this strip search simply in order to punish me for my passive resistance and for standing up for the rights of the boy who was being stopped and searched – in short, for being a ‘bleeding heart lefty’ – and to intimidate me into providing my details. He had absolutely no reason to suspect I had any weapons or drugs on me, and none were found.

Police Complaint 

I initially submitted a complaint against the Metropolitan Police in respect of the strip search. The Metropolitan Police’s investigation into my complaint took several years and was thoroughly inadequate.

Subsequently, the IOPC investigated what had happened and concluded that Sergeant Howard should face a disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct. The IOPC report laid out in detail why Sergeant Howard had a case to answer and what issues the hearing would need to question him about.**

However, halfway through the hearing, which took place in August, the Panel appointed by the Metropolitan Police accepted an argument by Sergeant Howard's defence barrister that his client had no case to answer.

The Panel Chair, Maurice Cohen, said there were ‘reasonable grounds justifying Sgt Howard's actions in authorising a strip search’ on the basis that he did not know my identity or whether I was mentally ill.

The Panel came to this decision without even hearing evidence from Sergeant Howard or putting to him any of the questions laid out in the IOPC report. The Chair also got many of the facts of the case wrong when he tried to summarise them.

Overall the police complaints process was woefully inadequate did not lead to any real accountability on the part of the officers involved or the Metropolitan Police.

Civil claim

I have already taken preliminary steps to pursue civil proceedings against the police. I sent a ‘letter of claim’ to the police which set out the basis of my claim. They responded with a denial of liability, in which they threatened to pursue me for their legal costs if I were to issue my claim at Court. This shows the police are aware of the risks that victims face when challenging them in the Courts and are seeking to take advantage of this in order to avoid accountability.

I issued a claim against the Metropolitan Police at Central London County Court on 2 May 2019. However, I will struggle to proceed further with the claim without ATE insurance given the considerable financial risk of doing so.

What is the next step?

The initial £3,920 will enable us to pay the first premium required to secure ATE insurance. This will enable me to proceed with the civil action. The police will be unable to use the threat of an adverse costs order as a tactic to avoid accountability. 

The aim is to proceed with the action until the police acknowledge that I was subjected to an unlawful strip search. 

Thank you for reading. I have carried on fighting this case because I want to do everything I can to tackle the culture of impunity around police strip search abuse.  Please help me by donating what you can and sharing my page with friends and family, on social media or by email.  

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*For instance, a 2013 report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary found that almost a third of stop and searches were conducted without sufficient grounds  and it is still the case that black people are 8 times more likely to be stopped than white people.

**The IOPC report also found that two other officers in my case had behaved inappropriately – the officer in charge when I was arrested and one of the officers who strip searched me. These officers were subject to lower level disciplinary measures and did not face misconduct hearings.