New details come to light in the case of Sarah Everard, a London resident who was murdered by a police officer. As it turned out, the perpetrator was even deployed to secure the closely guarded parliamentary grounds.
London – Even days after the verdict against the murderer of the Londoner Sarah Everard, criticism of the police in the British capital is growing.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson complained that the police and the judiciary were too lax about violence against women. Parliamentary President Lindsay Hoyle expressed concerns about the security of the parliamentary grounds after it became known that the perpetrator, himself a police officer, had been used several times with a gun to protect Parliament.
The perpetrator was recently sentenced to life imprisonment. He had arrested, kidnapped, raped and murdered 33-year-old Everard under false allegations in London. The case sparked a crisis of confidence in the UK police force and a wave of outrage over violence against women in the country. Among other things, there was indignation that the police had tolerated the man in their own ranks for years, even though he had repeatedly been conspicuous for exhibitionism and inappropriate behavior towards women.
The Speaker of the House of Commons Hoyle demanded an explanation from Scotland Yard about the operation on the parliamentary grounds. “I asked the Met (Metropolitan Police, editor’s note) for an urgent interview to discuss how this person could be found suitable to serve here,” Hoyle told the Times of London. The British Parliament grounds are considered to be one of the best guarded places in the United Kingdom. In order to obtain access authorization, one must undergo a thorough security check. The security precautions were even tightened again after an attack in 2017.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized the police for their general approach to violence against women. “Do the police take these problems seriously enough? It’s unbearable. I think people feel they don’t, and they are not wrong, ”Johnson said in an interview with the Times newspaper on Saturday. Nevertheless, the police can be trusted in principle, the conservative politician continued.
Critics see the crime not only as an extreme individual case, but as the result of a misogynist culture within the police itself. Insiders report that colleagues who are guilty of assault are covered. The police are also accused of not taking reports from women about sexual assault seriously.
Johnson declined an independent investigation into the Everard killer. Instead, the entire handling of rape, domestic violence, sexual violence and complaints by women about harassment must be systematically investigated, the Prime Minister said on Sunday on BBC television. Too often investigations ended without conviction because prosecutors weren’t working closely enough with the police, Johnson said.
Johnson had previously rejected calls for Scotland Yard boss Cressida Dick to resign. A senior North Yorkshire police officer was scolded for saying that Everard should have resisted the false arrest. He later apologized for it. Conservative Party Secretary General Oliver Dowden called the comment on Sunday “stupid”. He and the prime minister were indignant about it, Dowden said.
However, Johnson defended tips from Scotland Yard, for example to get help from passers-by or to dial the emergency number if you are approached by a single plainclothes police officer and have doubts about his authenticity. If the behavior of a police officer is suspicious of who should seek help in the proposed way, said Johnson in the BBC. The tips, such as stopping passers-by or a bus and asking for help, or dialing the emergency number, had previously been criticized as “absurd” and “impossible”. Police in Scotland said they had revised their guidelines for individual plainclothes police officers. These should now offer a verification of their identity on their radio. dpa
