Met Police accused of “institutional racism” for sacking senior cop over a child abuse video

One of the UK’s most senior female police officers has been sacked after her conviction for possessing a video clip of child abuse.7

It was ruled by Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball that Superintendent Robyn Williams had committed gross misconduct.

At a fast-tracked misconduct hearing, Ms Ball said Williams’s failure to report the matter was “very grave”. She also pointed to Williams’s “lack of truthfulness and judgement”.

The superintendent was found guilty in November of having footage of child sexual abuse on her phone.

During her trial, Williams claimed she had not viewed the 54-second video, which was sent by her sister, and did not know it was on her phone.

But Ms Ball said that Williams’s conduct amounted to “discreditable behaviour” likely to undermine public confidence and was not a “trivial lapse”.

The assistant commissioner said the failure to report the abuse to authorities could have resulted in significant further harm to the child. She said it was “entirely unacceptable” for police officers responsible for enforcing the law to break it themselves.

Ms Ball added that racial bias had played “no part” in her decision, despite the Metropolitan Black Police Association arguing Williams has been unfairly targeted because she is black and accuses the force of “institutional racism”.

Williams’s friends and supporters, who were following the hearing on monitors in a separate room, gasped as the decision was readout. One of them started applauding sarcastically.

During Williams’s trial, Judge Richard Marks QC said she had made a “grave error of judgement” in failing to report the video after it was sent to her.

The superintendent, who been a police officer for 36 years, was ordered to do unpaid work in the community and register as a sex offender, however, the court recognised there was no sexual element to her offending.

Gerard Boyle QC, for Williams, told the special misconduct hearing that she had spent her entire police career since the age of 18 acting on behalf of victims of crime and abuse and that she was appalled by such abuse imagery.

Mr Boyle claimed his client “poses no risk to anyone, let alone children or young people”.

An appeal has been lodged against her conviction, but judges have not yet decided whether to grant approval for the case to be heard.

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