London Met Police put more effort into fighting settlement with rape victim than they did prosecutin

hurfdurf · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:44

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20705707

So the Police royally mess up, no one is fired, and they even have the gall to not apologise to the victim, and instead try and fight paying her compensation because their mess up resulted in her rapist going free and contributing to her depression (which is frankly completely understandable imo, knowing someone raped you and then got away with it must be suicide inducing)

"We are aware of the victim's comments of distress at the legal proceedings and that some legal arguments may have appeared insensitive to the victim, but that is not the intention of the Metropolitan Police Service."

Then why not apologise and pay up as requested rather than fighting it and causing further distress, only to do so in the end anyway?

Heads should roll, but they wont.

I do not know how serving Police officers can live with their colleagues, there are some amazing officers out there but the system is so utterly broken.

Danthus · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:47

They Met and the lady in question have reached an out of court settlement. :confused:

estebanrey · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:47

I'll never understand how they calculate compensation payments. This girl only gets £15k whilst a man who was sent to Libya and put in prison and treated badly gets £2.25 million.

It's like they just pluck the number out of the air.

Ahleckz · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:49

It's a true tragedy and a shame of our police force, and culture, that sexual offences (against both sexes) are treated in such a blasé manner. I'm unsure of the answer but this case, prima facie, sums up the attitude of the police force - placing car crime above sexual offences? Deplorable.

cymatty · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:50

estebanrey said:
I'll never understand how they calculate compensation payments. This girl only gets £15k whilst a man who was sent to Libya and put in prison and treated badly gets £2.25 million.

It's like they just pluck the number out of the air.

When you say treated badly what you actually mean is tortured, slightly different.

estebanrey · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:52

cymatty said:
When you say treated badly what you actually mean is tortured, slightly different.

Not 2.2 million pounds different to rape though (which was my point).

hurfdurf · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:52

OldCoals said:
They Met and the lady in question have reached an out of court settlement.

Not without a fight, and without a formal admission of guilt by the MET, they just rubbed salt in the wound.

cymatty · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:53

estebanrey said:
Not 2.2 million pounds difference to rape though (which was my point).

Except he would not have been kidnapped along with his family and tortured if it were not for the UK government. On the other hand the girl had already been raped and the case was screwed up.

The cases could not be more different, hence the large disparity in damages.

Danthus · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:54

hurfdurf said:
Not without a fight, and without a formal admission of guilt by the MET, they just rubbed salt in the wound.

You original comment was to the contrary though.

Destination · 14 Dec 2012 at 22:56

hurfdurf said:
Not without a fight, and without a formal admission of guilt by the MET, they just rubbed salt in the wound.

You'll find all out of court settlements come with that same priviso, it legalese.
The met lawyers shouldn't have fought this case, it was discussed at length during the week.

hurfdurf · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:00

Hikari Kisugi said:
You'll find all out of court settlements come with that same priviso, it legalese.
The met lawyers shouldn't have fought this case, it was discussed at length during the week.

But they did, and no one has been held accountable

Burnsy2023 · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:00

hurfdurf said:
I do not know how serving Police officers can live with their colleagues, there are some amazing officers out there but the system is so utterly broken.

What happened in the story is horrific, but that's not how things are done in other parts of the country.

MrMoonX · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:03

it doesnt surprise me its the Met, literally the majority of policing failures and abuses occur with Met officers. Lawrence, Institutional Racism, G20, Kettling, Tomlinson etc. and now this, seriously force should be sacked and rebuilt

Danthus · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:03

Burnsy2023 said:
What happened in the story is horrific, but that's not how things are done in other parts of the country.

I would feel fairly confident in saying at some point all forces have settled out of court at some point for a myriad of reasons.

estebanrey · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:03

cymatty said:
Except he would not have been kidnapped along with his family and tortured if it were not for the UK government. On the other hand the girl had already been raped and the case was screwed up.

The cases could not be more different, hence the large disparity in damages.

I'm not arguing that the cases are the same, I'm questioning the disparity in the payments.

Being raped then seeing your attacker walk free due to police incompetence is not worth 150 times less than being tortured due to government incompetence in my opinion. The Libyan chap never has to work again and instantly promoted to the top 10% richest in the country, whereas the rape victim gets a bit which if she's likely will be enough to serve as a down payment on a mortgage.

Danthus · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:05

MrMoonX said:
it doesnt surprise me its the Met, literally the majority of policing failures and abuses occur with Met officers. Lawrence, Institutional Racism, G20, Kettling, Tomlinson etc. and now this, seriously force should be sacked and rebuilt

You have highlighted 5 instances, hardly indicative of how a whole force performs.

Burnsy2023 · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:06

OldCoals said:
I would feel fairly confident in saying at some point all forces have settled out of court at some point for a myriad of reasons.

People make mistakes. That is a fact of life. Contrary to public opinion Police Officers are human.

That said, it looks like there was a flaw in procedures that lead to the OP's story on top of people making personal mistakes. Rapes where I'm from have very specific procedures to help prevent these sort of issues.

Danthus · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:07

Burnsy2023 said:
People make mistakes. That is a fact of life. Contrary to public opinion Police Officers are human.

That said, it looks like there was a flaw in procedures that lead to the OP's story on top of people making personal mistakes.

I agree, mistakes happen but the whole force should not be pilloried because of it.

cymatty · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:08

estebanrey said:
Being raped then seeing your attacker walk free due to police incompetence is not worth 150 times less than being tortured due to government incompetence in my opinion. The Libyan chap never has to work again and instantly promoted to the top 10% richest in the country, whereas the rape victim gets a bit which if she's likely will be enough to serve as a down payment on a mortgage.

He was held for 7 years and subjected to awful treatment for 7 constant years. I think he deserved every penny.

Ahleckz · 14 Dec 2012 at 23:13

MrMoonX said:
it doesnt surprise me its the Met, literally the majority of policing failures and abuses occur with Met officers. Lawrence, Institutional Racism, G20, Kettling, Tomlinson etc. and now this, seriously force should be sacked and rebuilt

Nothing wrong with kettling at all.