Officers questioned woman but not the alleged rapist, bringing force into disrepute, rules watchdog
Scotland Yard has paid a five-figure sum to a woman after officers “brought the service into disrepute” for failing to investigate her report of rape by her ex-husband, the Guardian has learned.
The Metropolitan police’s directorate of professional standards – known as the “Line of Duty unit” – criticised officers involved in the woman’s case, saying they had damaged the reputation of the force “at a time when we are working hard to build bridges with the public and re-build the trust we have lost”.
The country’s largest police force paid substantial damages to the woman in January after she started legal proceedings, almost four years after she went to the police to report a rape and controlling and coercive behaviour by her ex-husband.
In June 2021 the woman told officers that during unwanted sex with her ex-husband – during which she was unresponsive – she stated: “This feels like rape,” but he continued.
