At 12, they treated me as an adult – I still have nightmares
CASE STUDY 1
GEORGIA Wood was just 12 when she was strip-searched by two policewomen with no appropriate adult present.
She is now 2 and still suffers from nightmares, panic attacks and a distrust of anyone in authority.
Georgia was ‘shocked’ to discover that on average more than 1,000 children are strip-searched each year by UK police forces. She said: ‘Why is this still going on? I thought things had changed, it’s crazy that this is happening.
‘The police are treating young and sometimes vulnerable children like adults – they don’t consider the harm this does every time a child is put through it. Even now, if I’m in a small room at work with strangers it brings back the memories of what happened.
‘Going through airport security can bring on a panic attack. I’m thinking I know I haven’t done anything wrong but I didn’t do anything wrong when I was searched by the police when I was 12.’
Terrified Georgia was bundled into a police car in South Wales over a drug investigation. Her mother Karen Archer was put in another car and the pair were driven ten miles to Neath police station to be strip-searched separately.
No drugs were found and no charges were ever brought against the mother or daughter, who live on a five-acre smallholding near Pontardawe, Swansea. Georgia, who works as a civil servant, said: ‘What happened to me that day was a life-changing event.
‘The police had a duty to protect me that day but instead I was made to strip in front of strangers. They scared me.
‘I understand the police sometimes have to strip-search under-18s but there are strict protocols and they are not always being followed. A relative, a friend or an independent chaperone should always be present. But that doesn’t always happen.’
Georgia says she was treated ‘no differently to a grown-up’ and was left needing therapy for PTSD. She doesn’t see herself as a campaigner but is compelled to speak out to help children.
She said: ‘It is just shocking that this is going on. The children involved often can’t speak out for legal reasons so I feel I have to say and do something. The police go into situations treating children the same as adults. That has to stop, things have to change.’