The Metropolitan Police have settled a civil claim with our client “Lorraine” after her lengthy battle with the force’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) for action to be taken after she was groomed by a sexually predatory police officer, former PC Phil Hunter. Lorraine’s objective has always been that the officers in the DPS who enabled PC Hunter were also held accountable for their failures.
The BBC has reported on Lorraine’s pursuit of accountability from the Met Police, read the article here.
Lorraine came into contact with the Metropolitan Police in 2017 as a vulnerable victim of crime. She was groomed by former PC Hunter, who sought an inappropriate relationship with her. PC Hunter was also having a sexual relationship with another vulnerable victim.
When Lorraine reported him to the DPS, officers failed to properly investigate and actively attempted to dismiss and discredit Lorraine including by sharing false claims about her mental health with third parties. Lorraine had to make numerous attempts over a period of 18 months to report Hunter before an investigation was eventually opened.
Even after the DPS had concluded that Hunter had a case to answer for gross misconduct they refused to hold a gross misconduct hearing because Hunter had already been found guilty of gross misconduct in connection with the other victim. Lorraine had to appeal this decision to the IOPC who directed the MPS to hold a gross misconduct hearing.
Hunter was never charged with the criminal offence of misconduct in public office and Lorraine has never received an adequate explanation for this. After Hunter left the Metropolitan Police Service he was able to become a taxi driver despite posing a serious risk to women.
In March 2023 Baroness Casey used Lorraine’s case as a case study in her landmark Review into the Metropolitan Police Service . Baroness Casey found that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally misogynistic and identified failings in how cases of police perpetrated abuse were dealt with. She recommended that the DPS review Lorraine’s case.
In August 2024 Hunter was finally found guilty of gross misconduct in relation to his conduct towards Lorraine.
The DPS accepted in a letter dated 20 March 2025 that there were failures in the case and that their officers had not given Lorraine’s allegations the weight that they should have done, however following a further investigation they found that no officer in the DPS had a case to answer for misconduct. Lorraine appealed to the IOPC who then upheld 8 out of 12 aspects of her complaint and concluded that her treatment had been unacceptable. When Lorraine attempted to draw these concerns to the Met’s attention she was characterised by the DPS as a ‘fixated complainant’.
Lorraine has now settled a civil claim against the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and been awarded substantial damages; however she remains of the view that there has been no true accountability. She has spoken to the BBC about her experiences.
Sophie Naftalin at Bhatt Murphy, representing Lorraine said:
“This case is an example of how the misconduct system within the Metropolitan Police continues to fail women. Lorraine has utilised every mechanism: she’s appealed to the IOPC, she’s received apologies from very senior officers who have confirmed to her that her treatment was completely unacceptable. But what has evaded her is seeing any other officer other than Hunter be held individually accountable for those failures. When she continued to pursue those mechanisms, she herself was labelled a fixated complainant and made to feel that it was her problem, rather than the Metropolitan Police’s problem.
In the wake of the 2023 Casey Review, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley publicly committed to listening to women and taking meaningful action to rebuild trust in the force. There is a familiar and repeated pattern where following another Met scandal, rather than seeing meaningful change we see crisis management and reputation repair. The prevailing culture remains”.
Lorraine is represented by Sophie Naftalin and Joanna Khan from Bhatt Murphy.
