U.K – A mother has claimed she was forced to strip naked in a cell by officers from Greater Manchester Police and was told under threat to drop complaints about the force.
Dannika Stewart said that complaints she made against the force resulted in her being hauled into a police cell and humiliated by officers who told her she must ‘drop all your complaints’.
Her Complaints
She said that she feels the officers will ‘just be after me now’ and that they always will be, adding that she was scared of what other reprisals she may face.
A former detective for GMP, Maggie Oliver, said that she is not the only person who has complained about the force who has been ‘targeted’ for ‘standing up’ to them.
Ms Stewart’s complaints are now being looked by an inquiry run by Dame Vera Baird, following Sky News’ investigation into police strip searches and how women are treated whilst in custody.
The review will be published soon and Sky has said that it will be critical of the police complaints system.
She Reported a Sexual Crime
Ms Stewart reported an allegation of a sexual crime against a young person in March 2022.
She thought the crime was not being sufficiently investigated so reported it to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
One of her complaints included reference to a recording she had made on her phone where a police officer accepted there were failures in the investigation.
Ms Stewart was told that officers wanted to speak to her. Pendleton police station in Greater Manchester three months later, where she was then arrested.
How She Was Stripped Naked
She claimed the man she accused of the sex crime had accused her of blackmail. The mother said she was told to strip naked in the cell, and that if she did not officers would strip her.
She thinks police were trying to get the recording of the officer who admitted failures in the investigation from her phone SIM. Her phone was handed over without the card after she was arrested.
She said she took her tracksuit bottoms off as she knew they were going to take them off her anyway. She then took off her leggings and underwear. ‘I’m just sat there naked,’ she told Sky.
Posting about her ordeal on social media yesterday, Ms Stewart said: ‘I was strip searched naked and left in a cell.’
She told Sky that officers walked in and out of the cell while she was naked, and one female officer stared at her breasts.
She said it was ‘all about power’ and they wanted to ‘show who me who was boss’, adding that when she left the station the sergeant on the desk told her ‘you need to drop all your complaints against the police’.
Former detective Maggie Oliver, who quit GMP more than ten years ago after she blew the whistle on the force, is supporting her through the her foundation.
She says that CCTV would show she did not change into clothing provided by police and that audio would show that she was told to strip naked for the search. She asked for the footage, as she is entitled to, but the force refused to provide it.
Ms Stewart then approached the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to review the complaint after it had been dismissed.
How the Footage was Deleted
Kate Green, deputy mayor for safer and stronger communities, undertook the review and revealed that the investigating officer ‘did not review the CCTV footage from Ms Stewart’s time in custody or provide her with an explanation as to why he did not review the CCTV footage or the audio recordings’.
It appears that investigator asked officers what happened and took their version of events as true with little question, resulting in Ms Green concluding that the complaint against GMP should have been upheld.
After Ms Stewart requested the CCTV again, she had been told that it had been corrupted. She said: ‘They replied to my unlawful strip search denying the strip search and when trying to obtain footage they deleted the footage.’
