Unmasked: Secret BBC filming exposes hidden culture of misogyny and racism inside Met Police
In a video uncovered by a Panorama undercover reporter, serving Metropolitan Police officers called for immigrants to be shot, reveled in the use of force, and dismissed rape allegations. Following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, the Met's promise to have tackled toxic behaviours
was put into question. Officers are caught on Panorama's undercover filming making sexually threatening coworkers and sharing racial stereotypes of immigrants and Muslims. These findings reveal that, rather than being kicked out of the Met, racial and misogynistic attitudes have been pushed underground. Someone new joins, boom, mask on.
You've got to figure them out,
completely intolerable, completely ineffective, and in violation of the force's values and requirements.one officer said. Following the BBC's detailed list of allegations, it suspended eight officers and one staff member, as well as booting two more officers off front-line positions. Panorama's conduct, according to Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, was
Rory Bibb, BBC Panorama's undercover reporter, spent seven months in the custody suite of Charing Cross police station in central London's central London as a designated detention officer (DDO). It's a civilian job that requires close collaboration with sergeants and constables but not in participating in arrests.
Charing Cross has one of the Met's 22 custody suites, where people are held after arrest and release before they are charged or released. Officers work in a volatile environment, especially teenage people and those with mental health problems.
The station had been the subject of an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), into bullying and discrimination that began almost four years ago. In private group chats, it found that some officers had discussed assaulting their girlfriends, made derogatory and racial remarks, and joked about rape. Despite the Met's pledge to root out rogue officers
and cultural failures,
whistleblowers told Panorama that officers with racist and misogynistic attitudes still worked at the station.
'Terrifying' misogyny
Sergeants are in charge of the custody suite from day to day and are accountable for upholding the Met's values and ethical requirements. Sgt McIlvenny, one of them at Charing Cross, was caught on camera while on duty on several occasions, displaying misogynistic attitudes. He spoke to colleagues in a franking way about his sex life, reminding the undercover reporter and a female colleague about a woman he encountered online:
She was so fat she had two pussies,She fucking fills the door, almost like monstrous.
He talked about how he got sexual pleasure from playing with his nipples, despite the reservations of some female coworkers in earshot.she said. There's the real one and then the fat one round it comes.
the guy said of having his nipples pierced. So, I'm going to ask them if I can have a wank.My pain tolerance goes up dramatically if I'm aroused at the same time,
That's what she says. Panorama does not have the complete case information. Later, the female DDO informed the undercover reporter of her rage at the sergeant's response.Sgt McIlvenny, the custody sergeant, is charged with making decisions about whether a suspect is arrested or released in jail after being arrested. When a female DDO challenged a decision to free a man accused of assaulting his mother, she pointed out that he had also been accused of attacking the pregnant woman in the stomach. Sgt McIlvenny responded:
I like the way he went,she says.
she said.He fuck stamped on her stomach when she was pregnant,
I'd like to turn around and go,says the wanker. You're a wanker. ' But, unfortunately, I can't. He's got stripes on his shoulders.
completely ineffective and highly misogynistic.Sue Fish, the temporary chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police and who also served misconduct hearings, investigated Panorama's video and said the sergeant's sexualized remarks were
massage industry" according to our undercover reporter. He had been reported by British Transport Police officers, according to the custody staff. However, the sergeant said he was back working in the custody suite last month before Panorama alerted the Met of its conclusions, according to the BBC's reporter.As a woman as well as a former police officer, people like him have the ability to make such difficult decisions regarding my wellbeing or other women's safety, which is alarming. Ms Fish has previously discussed her encounter with two coworkers, once as a junior officer and then again as if she were in possession of a senior role. Nottinghamshire Police became the first police force to report misogyny as a hate crime under her leadership in 2016. Sgt McIlvenny was told in January that he was being prosecuted for making inappropriate remarks to a woman detained in detention while the BBC's undercover reporter was on duty. The woman was Asian, and Sgt McIlvenny told her that she should work in the
'Red mist'
Officers were caught repeatedly by the BBC's undercover reporter, demonstrating a culture of confidence and a skepticism that coworkers would not blow the whistle on them. According to their Standards of Professional Behaviour, police officers can use force, but only when it is
Stampy,promis and appropriate in all the circumstances. PC Martin Borg outlined how a man arrested for impersonating a police officer and attempted kidnap, as well as being deemed a suicide threat when off duty, had been arrested for a few drinks in a nearby bar. The guy had spat at officers and urinated on the door of the cell, according to PC Borg, so officers pinned him down on the ground. Sgt Steve Stamp, nicknamed
This guy's fucking screamed,pulled his boot down on the man's leg while kicking out, according to the constable. In the custody suite, the sergeant stamping down twice was able to view footage from CCTV cameras.
said PC Borg.He had a lump on his foot that looked like a fucking tumor mate,
says the narrator.You cunt cunn't fuckled did you cun'?
Absolutely Sarge,recalling that the detainee had protested that the sergeant stamped on his leg. According to PC Borg, the sergeant had told him afterwards that the perpetrator had attempted to kill him.
he recalled saying.I'll put that in the MG11 if Sarge is your thing.
perpetuating the path of justice or plotting to pervert the course of justice. It's not clear in the CCTV video if the man intended to kick Sgt Stamp. At the time, the guy had bare feet and four police were restraining him. According to one officer, if robbers refuse to have their fingerprints taken, he could pull two of their fingers hard to crack the tendons.An MG11 is a witness statement. If PC Borg had fabricated information in it, it could have been shown to be inaccurate, according to Ms Fish, the former chief constable,
I love taking fingerprints by force,he said. As he stood up in the van, wearing leg restraints, another constable, meeting the undercover journalist in the canteen for the first time, he screamed the shit out of his legs.
Just fucking like five or six strikes,he said. "It wasn't a good look. There's no doubt there's a little bit of red mist there. But nothing came of it.
'They're just scum'
Officers in the bar often expressed racial, anti-immigrant, or anti-Muslim sentiments. PC Borg was in the pub on one occasion discussing prisoners in detention who were from ethnic minorities. When asked which group caused the most pain, he replied Muslims.
Hate us. They fucking hate us. Proper hate us,he said.
Islam is a problem. A serious problem, I think. Officers must not
according to police guidelines. PC Phil Neilson, a West End constable, was initially suspicious of sharing his thoughts with the undercover reporter. PC Neilson asked if the reporter was a member of the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards, but only half joking. PC Neilson and Rory returned to the pub two weeks later, where the constable explained how he did not object UKrainian people fleeing to the UK from the war. However, he had a completely different view of people arriving from the Middle East. On his second pint, he said,discredit the police service or jeopardize public confidence, whether on or off duty,
They're just scum,he claimed, referring to it as a
invasionWe'd better lose our jobs right now,
scumPC Neilson said. Over the course of the evening, and as PC Neilson drank more, his views remained consistent, but in more radical ways - and even violent ones. Algerians were
andcunts,
according to his, Somalis were allslum
and they werefucking ugly,
andevery foreigner is the worst to deal with
I've seen too many Islamics committing crimes. Their way of life is not the right way of living, he said.PC Neilson expressed his views on Islam a few drinks later.
Fucking either put a bullet through his head or deport him,You will find that the ones that are causing the most violence are Muslims. Officers are also required not to discriminate unlawfully or unfairly under any circumstances. There are no reports on general arrest rates by religious groups in the Home Office and police.
He added:PC Neilson said of a prisoner who had overstayed his visa.
appalled and disgustedA revolver. A revolver would be so nice. And for those that shag, rape women, you'd do the cock and let them bleed out. Ms Fish, the former chief constable, said she was
and that the constable was aviolent racist.
I'm not much as a human being," she said.I have absolutely no confidence in him as a police officer.
'The real you comes out'
Despite many officers' disparaging and unprofessional views, some officers made it clear that they were not aware of the need to conceal their true opinions. Sgt McIlvenny cautioned the undercover reporter not to mention the use of force against criminals in ways that could not be caught by CCTV and microphones within the police station on one occasion. A man in the leg had been punched while being searched forcibly, and the undercover reporter said afterwards: I saw your little dig in the back of the leg.
Sgt McIlvenny led the reporter into a corridor a few minutes after she was taken from the cameras and microphones in custody. Before debriefing the use of force in the suite,
he said.
Don't fucking talk us all into a fuckeding big complaint. PC Brian Sharkey, one of Rory's longest-serving officers, was drinking with colleagues who were joking about discipline charges and making sexual innuendos in the pub.It doesn't sound good if it's played back later on down the line. The sergeant continued,
You might as well go down for rape,PC Sharkey said before checking himself and saying it was a joke.
That was a bit wrong. I challenge myself on that.Now who can I fuck trust here?
You're the fucking new boythe constable asked the undercover reporter later.
You must put on the mask of being truthful, and then, when you get to them, it comes off and the authentic you comes out,before putting an end to talk about another incident. When speaking to a new colleague, another officer told the undercover reporter he was suspicious.
immediate and unprecedented steps to look into these allegations.he said. During the seven-month probe, the BBC wrote to the Metropolitan Police detailing the evidence collected during the seven month probe. Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said his team had taken
We are really concerned about this situation,it said.
The Met hasdismantled the custody team at Charing Cross,
the biggest clear-out in the force's history.Sir Mark said, adding that more than 1,400 officers and employees have been suspended or suspended since 2022 for failing to adhere to the Met's requirements,
he said.Much more work remains to be done to combat the individuals and cliques whose appalling behavior continues to shame their coworkers and Londoners,
In this , Panorama wrote to the individual officers named in the story. They have not responded. After Sarah Everard was kidnapped, assaulted and murdered by a serving police officer in 2021, a report by Baroness Louise Casey found that it was institutionally racist, homophobic, and misog Sir Mark Rowley accepted the report's findings, but did not accept that the conditions wereWe're determined to find, confront, and get rid of them.
real strides. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general who also reviewed Panorama's video, said he was shocked how high quality, values, and disciplineinstitutional. The force was put into special measures by the police inspectorate in 2022, which was a form of increased scrutiny that came to an end in January this year. Sir Mark said at the time that the service was making
Referring to the sergeants. According to him, these officers' behavior undermined policing by consent and made the job more difficult in the long run.didn't appear or being inculcated by the people who were in power.
Ms Fish, theI've seen enough to say that there is a highly toxic culture of hypersexualized male behaviour, misogyny, bigotry, racial profiling, and gratuitous, unlawful violence,
The Met leadership had never understoodthe importance, the extent, and impact
of this culture, according to her.It's always been a rotten apple, not a barrel," she said. Get all the headlines you need to start the day with our flagship newsletter. Sign up here.
