Police must take women’s complaints more seriously and not dismiss flashing as ‘trivial’, says Labour peer

Baroness Kennedy said she was ‘tired’ of forces promising to learn from tragedies

Police forces in the UK must take women’s complaints more seriously in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder, a Labour peer has said.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, who chairs the Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland, said officers must not treat incidents of harassment or flashing as trivial.

Her comments came after Ms Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer, was sentenced to a whole-life order for her kidnap, rape and murder on Thursday. The Metropolitan Police has faced criticism for allegedly failing to act on “alarm signals” spotted by Couzens’ colleagues in the force, which included a string of flashing incidents.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Baroness Kennedy said: “We have to be looking at male behaviour more generally, but the police certainly have to be taking women’s complaints more seriously than they have done.

“This has been going on for many, many years and I’m rather tired of hearing police forces saying we’re going to learn lessons from some tragedy.

“The lessons don’t seem to be learned, and the lessons are that women’s suffering of this kind of stuff has to stop, and women up and down the country are saying that. And you have to listen, and police forces are not doing that.”

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has previously said that Couzens was linked to a flashing incident in 2015 and two more just days before he killed Ms Everard. Baroness Kennedy urged police forces to act more quickly following reports of predatory behaviour.

“None of it’s acceptable,” she added. “What we know is that institutions often will put their own reputations first. They also have come together to protect each other. That’s got to end.”

Her comments come after the Metropolitan Police sparked fury after issuing advice for women who fear a male police officer might not be genuine, suggesting they call 999 or “shout out to a passer-by, run into a house or wave a bus down” for help.

In a message on its website headed “Our response to issues raised by the crimes of Wayne Couzens”, the Met said it was “unusual for a single plain clothes police officer” to engage with any member of the public.

It added that if you did see other officers arrive later then you can expect to ask the lone officer questions such as “where are your colleagues?” and “why are you here?”.

The force suggested if people feared they were in imminent danger they should seek assistance by “shouting out to a passer-by, running into a house, knocking on a door, waving a bus down or if you are in the position to do so calling 999.”

Boris Johnson on Saturday claimed that the police’s failure to take sexual violence against women seriously was “infuriating”. He told The Times: “There’s [a] problem, which is partly caused by the failure of the criminal justice system to dispose of these [cases].

“Are the police taking this issue seriously enough? It’s infuriating. I think the public feel that they aren’t and they’re not wrong.”