Police abusers ‘get away with it’

Campaigners claim ‘culture of loyalty’ denies justice for officers’ partners

POLICE officers accused of domestic abuse have been accused of making witness statements vanish to help clear their names, a Sunday Telegraph investigation reveals today.

Women who have reported their partners, who are serving officers, to the police for domestic abuse told this newspaper they have experienced “corruption behind the scenes” when forces are left to investigate their own.

A charity has warned of cases where evidence has gone missing, officers have accessed the force computer system to look through files on their investigation, and women being told their partner will not be investigated because it will “bring the force into disrepute”.

The revelations come as the victims’ commissioner of England and Wales has called for a change in procedure that would prevent forces from investigating one of their officers for allegations of domestic abuse, with a neighbouring force taking it on instead.

In an article for The Telegraph website, Nicole Adams, the domestic abuse commissioner, and Dame Vera Baird, the victims’ commissioner, say policing “encourages a culture of loyalty” among their own.

“Clearly, there are far more good officers than bad but it’s plain that many abusers aren’t being dealt with properly,” they warn.

“Carrying a warrant card comes with a badge of trust. If that trust is betrayed, there must be swift and rigorous consequences. The reputation of the police rests on it.”

One woman told this newspaper that it felt like the police “were on his side” as soon as she reported that her partner, a serving officer at Sussex Police, had physically abused her.

“It’s like they were marking their own homework,” the woman said.

“During a conversation with the detective inspector handling my complaint, he told me that someone higher up the chain said, ‘No, let’s treat this as if he is a member of the public’.

“The DI couldn’t understand my shock when I told him that it was terrifying that they were considering treating him differently because he was a police officer.”

Nogah Ofer, from the Centre for Women’s Justice, called for external forces to handle the investigations, saying there should be “a firewall between the investigators and the suspect”.

“We have seen a pattern of problems,” she said, referring to forces all across the country. “At the heart of some of these cases is a form of corruption behind the scenes. There are inadequacies and evidence goes missing,” she said. “The investigators know the suspects and the witnesses. Some women have been disciplined and arrested. In multiple ways, there are accounts of the police family closing around to protect the suspect.”

Ms Ofer said her centre

‘There is too much of a link between the suspects and the police so there is a complete lack of trust in the system’

had dealt with a case where a female officer was called into a meeting with her line manager and told it would bring the force into disrepute to investigate her partner, who was also a serving officer.

In another case, a woman’s statement – which she knew had been given to her partner – later vanished, while another woman tried to move away from her abusive partner but he could access DVLA records and find out where she was.

Ms Ofer added: “We need a system where justice appears to be done. But at the moment there is too much of a link between the suspects and the police so there is a complete lack of trust and confidence in the system.

“Police officers can access the system and see information about themselves.

“Some cases are obviously done properly, but some cases aren’t and there’s certainly a high level of risk that dodgy things can be done to bury these cases.”