Published 18th July 2024

Police pay damages following failures in assault investigation

The Metropolitan Police have agreed to pay £5,500 in damages to a London man who alleged they failed to investigate a serious, unprovoked and likely racially motivated attack on him.

SM, who is of South Asian heritage, was assaulted without warning outside his partner’s home address and suffered a head injury. The crime was immediately reported to the Metropolitan Police but the officer assigned to investigate indicated that it would not be possible to find the perpetrator, and decided to close the case.

An investigation by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards found that the officer failed to conduct house to house enquiries, failed to conduct further CCTV enquiries after learning that he had initially checked for CCTV around the wrong address, and made a premature decision that there were no viable lines of enquiry. A second officer subsequently assigned to the case also failed to follow up these lines of enquiry. A further investigation into whether the officers’ failings were discriminatory is ongoing.

SM is represented by Joanna Khan.

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