London’s Met Police pressurised rape victims pressured to drop allegations

London: Rape victims were pressured to withdraw their allegations by a specialist Metropolitan police unit as officers tried to gerrymander their performance statistics, an official report has found.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said the Sapphire unit at Southwark failed victims. Women reporting rapes and sexual assaults were encouraged to withdraw their allegations, the IPCC said.

The watchdog said that in 2008 the Southwark Sapphire unit was performing poorly and under pressure to improve.

The report found women were repeatedly questioned by a detective about whether they had really not consented to sex. They were encouraged to withdraw their complaints, which boosted the unit’s sanctioned detection rate.

The rape allegations were not recorded by police.

The IPCC deputy chair, Deborah Glass, said the approach was “wholly inappropriate” and “deeply disturbing”.

The investigation followed cases in 2008. The IPCC said the unit had improved since coming under centralised command in 2009.