The Deputy Mayor of Hackney has called for reform after the Met Police’s failings in the Child Q case.
The teenage Black girl, whose identity has been concealed for her own protection, was subjected to “traumatic” degradation after being strip-searched by two police officers while on her period.
This took place as she was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis, according to a safeguarding report which also found that racism “likely played a factor”.
The incident triggered a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review, published on Monday and conducted by City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP), following the incident at the end of 2020.
Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Councillor Anntoinette Bramble, who’s also the Cabinet Member for Education, called for fundamental changes to policing: “There needs to be reform. We cannot live in a society where the colour of a young person’s skin affects how they are treated.
“We don’t think the police response has not been anywhere near strong enough throughout the safeguarding review process,” she added.
On Thursday, the councillor and other Hackney Council leaders, sent a letter to Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Laurence Taylor calling for “robust and decisive” action to ensure “this never happens again”.
The council requested a public police action plan within the next two weeks and highlighted the Met’s “unsatisfactory response from the outset” which saw officers not co-operating with the safeguarding review. They also wrote to the Home Secretary requesting a review of laws relating to strip searches.
“We wrote to the Met because of that lack of trust and confidence from the community. We done it because we want to see some action; the home secretary is also key and the reason why we wrote to the government is because they are the legislators of the land,” Councillor Bramble said. “Every child deserves to feel safe in school.”
Amid national outcry in response to Child Q’s abuse, the Government has been notably silent on the issue which has not been lost on commentators.
Neither the prime minister nor the home secretary has publicly addressed the case; the Education Secretary hasn’t mentioned it. The equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, only when asked in parliament said the incident is “appalling” and the nation’s response “shows that the UK cares about people of colour”.
“We’d hoped for some sort of response (from the Government) - not because of us, as adults, but for those children,” Councillor Bramble observed.
“How empowering would it have been for the prime minister of the country to say ‘this terrible thing has happened, I know you’re upset and we absolutely understand why. And that hasn’t happened.”
Conversely, the deputy mayor, who said she has a history of anti-racist activism, said that she plans to attend protests being staged in solidarity with Child Q.
“It’s something intrinsic that I know I have to do; I want to stand alongside the local community to ensure that we remind people not to normalise this kind of thing,” she said.
“Bad things keep happening to Black children in disproportionate numbers with disproportionate effects. If we don’t keep reminding people (of this reality) and speaking up, we begin to normalise these disparities because it’s something that keeps happening.
“What happened to Child Q should not have. It’s abhorrent, it’s awful and we will work to do all that we can to ensure that we can implement change. We have to challenge the system and this is part of a wider systemic issue because it leads into the disproportionality of Black children being excluded, Black children in the judicial system, the disproportionality of employment outcomes even after university.”
The deputy mayor added: “It’s debilitating, it’s disempowering, it’s invasive; everything that you wouldn’t want a young woman to feel is what she felt in that moment.”
The review concluded that Child Q should never have been strip searched, and found across many of the professionals involved that day, there was an absence of a safeguarding-first approach to their practice.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the case, which was referred to the police watchdog in May last year, and three of the officers involved are facing internal misconduct allegations.
Waves of protests and unrest have erupted across the UK in response to Child Q’s case.
On Friday, one was staged by campaigning group Hackney Copy Watch outside of Stoke Newington Police station with figures from MP Diane Abbott to Hackney resident TV presenter Andi Oliver, attending in solidarity.
Prominent equalities campaigner Patrick Vernon told The Independent Black communities are “sickened and angry about the violation and state rape of this young girl. We need full accountability and prosecutions. The commander of Hackney Police needs to resign; like the Windrush Scandal, warm apologies are now outdated,” he said.
This came as a string of Hackney councillors called for Hackney’s police borough commander Marcus Barnett to resign over the incident, penning a letter calling for the commander to step down.
Councillor Bramble stopped short of calling for the teachers and police officers involved to be sacked and prosecuted, however.
“We’re asking the school to reflect on whether the teachers or the head are the right people to take the school through this next journey and do they have the trust of the community,” Councillor Bramble said when asked whether she supports calls for punishments.
“Everyone in that space has to ask that question; that’s got to weigh on the individual. The first response is ensuring that Child Q’s identity stays anonymous, that she and her family are supported and we get systemic change that will affect change, prohibiting this from happening again. That has to be my primary focus.”
The deputy mayor wants to reassure concerned people around the country that the matter is being taken seriously - particularly Black woman and girls.
“To every Black mother and daughter: we are taking action,” Councillor Bramble said. “While we have to keep Child Q’s feelings and her family’s at the forefront of our minds - this will have been a trigger point for other children and young people,” she added explaining that the council will be engaging with children in schools.
“We have to understand the gravity of this. A young person has gone into her school, a place of safety, and no longer feels safe; that jeoparises all children potentially, who will think ‘am I safe in that environment?,” she said.
“Staff across schools are upset, as well as staff in the council, staff that work in the education department; everyone. This has affected a community which has affected the nation; this is triggering across the country, not just in Hackney but across London and elsewhere.
“It’s also about parents as well; if parents were worried about their children travelling to school for any reason, they had a little bit of a window in their mind, where they felt like where the child goes to school from 9am - 3pm and is safe.
“That changed overnight, the moment everybody found out about it, and other parents are beginning to experience just a little bit of what Child Q’s parents experienced.”
The Home Office and Met Police has been approached for comment.
