School staff did not expect strip-search, panel told

A school staff member who called the police over a black pupil she wrongly suspected of possessing cannabis did not expect an intimate search to be performed, a gross misconduct panel has been told.

The deputy safeguarding manager at the school in Hackney where the girl, known as Child Q, was strip-searched by officers said the 15-year-old “smelt strongly of cannabis” and had turned up “stoned”.

Metropolitan Police officers Det Con Kristina Linge, PC Victoria Wray and PC Rafal Szmydynski all deny gross misconduct over their treatment of the girl in December 2020.

The search took place at the east London school without an appropriate adult present, the panel heard.

The officers also failed to get authorisation at sergeant level or higher before they took action, it was alleged.

The panel, being held in south-east London over three weeks, previously heard the girl was left feeling “demeaned” and “physically violated” by the search, in which no drugs were found.

On Tuesday, the panel was told the examination exposed Child Q’s intimate parts and that she was menstruating at the time – which she had explained to the officers.

The deputy safeguarding manager, who is not being identified due to reporting restrictions, said she had been worried about the safety of Child Q and other pupils at the school as they were taking mock exams that day.

“I believed that she had weed on her because I could smell it so strongly,” she told the panel.

“I thought it could be hidden somewhere else, maybe stuffed down her skirt. I thought it could potentially be in her bra.”

The panel heard that Child Q was suspected of possessing cannabis three weeks before and searched by school staff. No drugs were found.

On the morning of the police strip-search, the deputy safeguarding manager said Child Q had told her that her taxi driver had smelt of cannabis while she was in a cab on the way to school.

The deputy safeguarding manager said she “didn’t feel she was truthful and I wasn’t expecting her to be honest”.

“It didn’t even enter my head that they would be doing an intimate search,” she said.

She told the panel she was following protocol by calling the police, adding: “I just look to them to know what they are doing.”

If the officers are found to have breached professional standards amounting to gross misconduct they could be sacked.

The hearing continues.