Hundreds of children strip-searched by Met Police over two years

Black boys were disproportionately targeted by officers, according to the figures uncovered by the Children’s Commissioner in the wake of the Child Q scandal.

That incident saw a teenage girl of colour on her period told to strip naked for a drug search by police without another adult present. No drugs were found.

But the latest damning revelations to hit the force actually suggest the incident was not isolated – and suggests a ‘systemic problem’, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said.

Some 650 children aged 10-17 underwent the ‘intrusive and traumatising’ strip-searches by the Metropolitan Police over a two-year period, Scotland Yard’s figures show.

Some 58% were described by the officer as being black, and more than 95% were boys.

Dame Rachel warned: ‘I am not reassured that what happened to Child Q was an isolated issue, but instead believe it may be a particularly concerning example of a more systemic problem around child protection within the Metropolitan Police.

‘I remain unconvinced that the Metropolitan Police is consistently considering children’s welfare and wellbeing.’

15-year-old Child Q was intimately examined after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at school.

The search, by female Metropolitan Police officers, took place in 2020 without another adult present and in the knowledge that she was menstruating, a safeguarding report found.

A review conducted by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP) concluded the strip-search should never have happened, was unjustified and that racism ‘was likely to have been an influencing factor’.

In 1999, the Met was found to be ‘institutionally racist’ in the damning Macpherson report.

Four Metropolitan Police officers are being investigated for gross misconduct by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in connection with the Child Q incident.

Scotland Yard has apologised and said it ‘should never have happened’.