Met commissioner warns tackling violence against women and girls needs same funding as counter terror

For free actual time breaking information alerts despatched straight to your inbox signal as much as our breaking information emails

Sign as much as our free breaking information emails

Britain’s prime officer has warned that tackling violence against women and girls needs the same degree of funding as terrorism policing as he faces questions over the recruitment of Sarah Everard’s killer to police.

Sir Mark Rowley’s feedback got here as the Mayor of London branded the recruitment of Wayne Couzens and repeated failures to cease him as “one of the most shattering accounts of failure in British policing history”.

Sadiq Khan hit out at a sequence of blunders which allowed Couzens to be recruited to a few totally different police forces after final week a damning inquiry uncovered a string of missed alternatives to catch the killer.

The inquiry, led by Lady Elish Angiolini, branded Couzens a “predatory sex offender and murderer” who ought to have by no means been a police officer, and laid naked a historical past of alleged sexual offending courting again almost 20 years earlier than he murdered the 33-year-old advertising govt.

At a gathering of the London Policing Board on Tuesday, Mr Khan expressed his deepest sympathies with Ms Everard’s family members who on Sunday marked the third anniversary of her kidnap and homicide by Couzens whereas he was a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

Ms Everard was strolling residence in Clapham, south London, on 3 March 2021 when she was tricked by Couzens, who falsely arrested her earlier than driving to Kent the place he raped and strangled and dumped her burnt physique in woodland.

“It’s a perpetual reminder of why we’re here and the importance of this board.”

The London Policing Board was established to supervise Met police reform within the wake of Baroness Louise Casey’s evaluation of the Met, which concluded the power was institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

Mr Khan added: “Whilst the Met is now on the path to fundamental reform, we’re clearly not there yet.

“I see police reform as a critical part of my mayoralty, and we must not be satisfied until Londoners have the police service they deserve.”

In response, Met commissioner Sir Mark mentioned he was “deeply, deeply sorry” to Ms Everard’s family members and repeated his feedback that the report was an “urgent call for action”.

He added {that a} BBC documentary ‘Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice’ on the homicide as a consequence of air on Tuesday night additionally highlights the perfect of the Met, as it paperwork the police hunt for Ms Everard’s killer and the second they apprehended Couzens.

The nation’s prime officer additionally mentioned future governments want to provide police the same degree of funding to take care of violence against women and girls as terrorism or organised crime.

“The aim nationally should be to treat it as a national security threat like we treat organised crime, like we treat terrorism,” he mentioned.

“When you look at the amount of harm that predatory men create in communities and to individuals, that’s what it deserves.”

He advised the board that there are lots of of hundreds of males in Britain who’re a menace to women and girls.

He mentioned that 34,000 males had allegations made against them in a single 12 months in London, whereas nationally 800,000 women have been sexually assaulted.

Separate estimates from the National Crime Agency counsel that 750,000 males pose a sexual menace to kids.

Sir Mark mentioned: “You start to add these numbers together. There are a lot of men who are a threat to women and children. And we’re trying to build the capabilities to both react better to the crimes that are reported, and to proactively in public space or with dangerous offenders protect women and children.

“And we’re making progress by being clever, better organised, but we’re going to need the support of future governments to really build the scale of resource that to deal with this problem across the country that is the same kind of resource that you have proportionately to deal with, say terrorism and organised crime.”

His feedback come after The Independent revealed not less than 350 women have been killed by males within the three years since Ms Everard’s homicide.

He advised board members though his power was nonetheless contemplating 16 suggestions made by Lady Elish in her inquiry to enhance police vetting checks and responses to indecent publicity, he was not against any of her findings, including: “I have seen nothing that I disagree with.”

He additionally famous that the variety of officers who fail police vetting when making use of to hitch the Met has doubled previously three years as they drive up requirements.