A 15-year-old black schoolgirl strip-searched by police has spoken for the first time about her ordeal and is asking herself: “Why was it me?”
Child Q hit out as an updated report on the scandal was published on Tuesday finding concerns about safeguarding, racism and disproportionality extend to all public services.
Protests and condemnation erupted after it emerged the teenager was wrongly searched for cannabis in the knowledge that she was on her period at school in Hackney, east London.
The Metropolitan Police apologised and said the search without another adult present “should never have happened” in 2000.
Former police chief Jim Gamble revealed he spoke to Child Q and she is showing “remarkable courage and resilience”.
He added: “Having spoken to her recently, this remains a weight on her shoulders.
“Child Q is still asking herself, ‘Why was it me? Things need to change with all organisations involved. Even I can see that’.”
Mr Gamble carried out the latest review as an independent commissioner with City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership.
It concludes concerns about safeguarding, racism and disproportionality extend to all public bodies and they need to work together in a coordinated way for change.
Mr Gamble’s initial report last year found Child Q’s search was unjustified and racism “was likely to have been an influencing factor”.
He said that since the scandal came to light in March 2022, no children in Hackney had been subjected to a strip searches “so there’s an immediate positive, but the work to do goes far, far deeper than that”.
Mr Gamble added: “Would this exist if child Q was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in a south Kensington school? I don’t think it would.
“Child Q wonders why it’s her because at the end of the day, worst case scenario, she smelled of cannabis.
“You can pick that up in the back of a taxi or having your lunch somewhere. So she’s asking ‘why me?’ and we all need to ask that question.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said four Met officers have been served with gross misconduct notices in connection with its ongoing investigation into complaints that Child Q was inappropriately strip-searched.
Mr Gamble - who also spoke to 100 local youngsters, parents and carers - concluded: “Perhaps the most striking message was that for many children, they felt no sense of shock about the strip search of Child Q.
“Some were disappointed, but not shocked.
“Indeed, in stark contrast to how most adults responded, the children I spoke with felt there was a certain inevitability that something like this would happen and that in their view, Child Q was yet another example of a black child being treated unfairly by the police.”
Responding to the update in a joint statement, Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville, deputy Mayor Anntoinette Bramble and Susan Fajana-Thomas, cabinet member for community safety, said: “We again reiterate our calls to the top of the Met Police to recognise and accept the definition of institutional racism.
“Real and lasting progress and change will remain paralysed until this happens.”
Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway, who leads policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: “The experience of Child Q should never have happened and I am sorry for the trauma that we caused her, and I am also sorry it took an event like this to highlight that we were overusing this type of strip search on children.
“We have been working hard to listen to what our communities and partners have told us about this incident.
“We wish these types of searches were not necessary but sadly we know there are children in London being exploited to carry drugs and weapons for others, as well as being involved in criminality.”
The force said 57 children were fatally stabbed in the last five years and 490 under-18s knifed in attacks.
On average over the same period, 578 children have been arrested for possession with intent to supply drugs and 1,356 detained for having weapons.
