Woman police chief is charged over abuse image
ONe of Scotland Yard’s most senior black female officers has been charged with possessing indecent images of a child.
Superintendent robyn Williams, 54, a widely respected trailblazer and role model in the police following the Stephen Lawrence murder case, is facing an uncertain future after being accused of having ‘a moving image file of Category A severity’.
Category A is the most serious level of child abuse images.
Williams has also been charged with one count of ‘corrupt/ improper exercise of police powers and privileges by a constable in failing to report the distribution of that image’.
She was charged over a video she received as part of a group message sent on social media. Two other people, neither police officers, have been charged in connection with the case.
Colleagues of £80,000-a-year Williams, who was appointed borough commander for Sutton, south London, in 2017, were left stunned after learning she had been charged with career-threatening offences.
A source said she ‘vehemently denies’ the allegations and added that she would fight to clear her name.
Detectives launched an investigation into Williams after a member of the public reported to police on February 4 last year that they had been sent an indecent video of a child.
As a result, two people were arrested on suspicion of poshad sessing and distributing an indecent image of a child and subsequently released under investigation.
The Metropolitan Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards was then made aware of allegations relating to Williams, who it was claimed received the video in the group message. She was interviewed under caution by officers in March last year.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is carrying out a misconduct inquiry into her.
Before joining the Met in 2008, Williams was the first black woman sergeant and inspector in Nottinghamshire Police.
She has been awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service in the ‘pursuance of fairness and good police and community race relations’.
Williams is a former general secretary and founder member of the National Black Police Association.
She sat on the Home Secretary’s working group overseeing the implementation of the recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence public inquiry, after the teenager was stabbed to death in a racist attack.
A popular figure in the Met, she is seen in pictures on her Twitter account rubbing shoulders with London mayor Sadiq Khan, ex-commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe and exHome Secretary Amber rudd.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘Three people, including a serving officer, have been charged in connection with an investigation into indecent images of a child.
‘Supt Williams was placed on restricted duties while the investigation was ongoing.’
‘Vehemently denies the allegations’