Met Police sued after 999 call handler who called rape victim ‘a slut’ reinstated

The Metropolitan Police are being sued after a 999 call handler who called a rape victim ‘a slut’ and mocked Sarah Everard’s death was reinstated.

The man was dismissed for gross misconduct in November 2023 after his colleague Issy Vine, 30, reported him for making remarks that were racist and offensive to victims of crime.

She also said he followed her after work on one occasion.

However, following an internal appeal, the handler’s actions were downgraded from gross misconduct to misconduct and he was reinstated four months after being sacked.

When Ms Vine raised concerns about him returning, a senior Met director reportedly told her the original panel had been ‘too emotional’ due to Baroness Casey’s report, which found the force was institutionally misogynistic and racist.

Now Ms Vine, from Wimbledon in south west London, is suing the Met for constructive dismissal after she quit her role because, she says, she couldn’t work alongside the man.

She said the handler once took a call from a woman who reported becoming pregnant and contracting an STD after being raped. Afterwards, she claimed, he used his hand to cover his mouth and said ‘she sounds like a slut’.

Later during the same shift he allegedly described Clapham Common as ‘Sarah Everard turf’, in reference to where Ms Everard was abducted by Met police officer Wayne Couzens, who went on to murder her.

Ms Vine said that on the same day he told her while still on a call, ‘can I be unkind? I have just had a call from an immigrant’.

She claimed that he then showed her his mobile phone screen, where he’d written: ‘Why don’t you f*** off back to your own country?’

Ms Vine also said that after the shift ended at 11pm, the man followed her onto the bus and Tube, despite having told her he lived in the opposite direction.

After Ms Vine made a formal complaint, the handler was put on restricted duties then sacked after the panel concluded his actions amounted to gross misconduct.

Following his reinstatement, she is seeking damages from the Met for constructive dismissal, sexual harassment, whistleblowing detriment and failure to make reasonable adjustments, reports The Telegraph.

She told the newspaper she joined the police to help people ‘because that is what the police do’.

Ms Vine, who quit in December, added: ‘I want people to feel safe and secure knowing they can depend on an authority with decent people behind it.

‘But now I worry whether that is actually the case or whether the very people who are being employed to protect us are part of the problem.

‘And even when you try to bring that to light, you are dragged through a flawed and horrendous misconduct process.’

Met Police Commander Jason Prins, told Metro: ‘These discriminatory comments were entirely unacceptable which is why this matter was brought to a misconduct hearing.

‘We take the former staff member’s concerns about the outcome of the misconduct process extremely seriously and it has been subject to a thorough review.’

No date has been set yet for the tribunal hearing.

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