London MET police criticised over surveillance of sex offenders

London’s under-fire Metropolitan Police failed to assess the risks posed by convicted sex offenders and online child abusers, an inspection report found on Thursday.

People convicted of sex crimes and suspects receive unannounced home visits from the police. But one high-risk offender has not been successfully visited since 2017, according to the police inspectorate report.

“As such, this individual and the risk he/she poses to the community was not managed,” the report said.

For the latest news, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

Despite this, there had been “no proactive consideration” to arrest the individual or issue an arrest warrant. The inspectorate also criticised the police for announcing visits too much in advance.

This, it was said, potentially gave the offender the opportunity to conceal material and devices and present themselves as a lower risk. The inspectorate also found the Met to be inadequate in its investigation of crime, with officers “lacking sufficient skills and experience to conduct high-quality investigations.”

“We found examples of complex crimes being assigned to officers with only basic training in investigations,” the report said.

“We even found crimes with clear vulnerabilities, such as indecent images of children, child abuse outside the family and sexual offences, being investigated by new recruits,” it added.

Earlier this year, the same inspectorate said the Met’s response to the criminal and sexual exploitation of children was “currently ineffective”.

Particularly disturbing was the poor response of police to children reported missing, with many officers saying they did not understand ‘the links between missing children and exploitation’.

The Met’s reputation has been tarnished in recent years by a series of scandals, including the kidnap, rape and murder of marketing director Sarah Everard by a serving officer who was later jailed for life.

In another case that shocked the public, a former police officer was last year sentenced to 36 life sentences for a “monstrous” string of 71 sex crimes, including the rapes of 12 women.

In January 2023, the Met announced that 1,071 officers from the 34,000-strong force were being investigated for domestic abuse and violence against women and girls.

Read more:

Eleven-year-old girl stabbed in London’s Leicester Square