Police force criticised over cyber-flashing claims

A series of complaints about a custody officer accused of cyber-flashing and sexual touching were not dealt with in an "acceptable" way, the police watchdog has concluded.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found a complainant initially received no response from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) after an alleged incident in Bolton in May 2024.

Action was only taken after she complained to neighbouring Cheshire Police, leading to a GMP custody officer being arrested and suspended.

The IOPC said complaints handlers had been given "words of advice" and extra training. No further action was recommended.

The woman, who is not being named for legal reasons, told the BBC the wait for her complaint to be acted upon had been "like living in purgatory for two-and-a-half years".

"I did everything the right way - the system didn't respond", she said, before adding: "Words of advice do not remove my PTSD."

The IOPC is also handling the criminal investigation into the arrested officer, and has passed a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service.

A separate IOPC investigation has taken place into whether the officer had breached police conduct regulations.

The inspectorate said its initial determinations had been sent to GMP and that it was awaiting a response from the force.

The IOPC review said the complainant attended the custody suite in Bolton as an "appropriate adult", helping someone who had been taken into custody.

Days later she complained about the conduct of a custody detention officer she had met during that visit.

After she received no response, she then referred the complaint to GMP's professional standards directorate.

Again, the IOPC review found "nothing happened" as a result.

It also found the GMP staff member who first dealt with the allegations "did not record them and did not take any further action in relation to them when guidance stipulated that this should have occurred".

The following month, the complainant submitted the allegations about the GMP custody officer to Cheshire Constabulary.

They "were not recorded as stipulated" by national regulations, the review found.

Cheshire Constabulary referred the allegations to GMP three weeks later, which did then respond appropriately by contacting the complainant.

GMP said it had apologised to her because "the service she received was not in line with expectations".

"We accepted that the complaint was not recorded in line with national processes, and reflective learning was conducted with the individual to ensure this doesn't happen again," a force spokesperson added.

Cheshire Constabulary, meanwhile, did not respond to requests for comment.

The GMP officer was arrested in July 2024 during the same week as a report by former victims commissioner Dame Vera Baird found women and girls had been "humiliated" while in the force's custody.

At the time, GMP said: "We continue to make improvements to ensure women and girls have confidence in the way they are treated by police, but there is no place in GMP for those who fall short of the exemplary standards of behaviour that the public so rightly deserve".

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