Dame Cressida Dick asked for £500,000 when she resigned as Met Police chief
30 January 2023, 21:21
Dame Cressida Dick asked for £500,000 to stand down as Metropolitan police commissioner before she was ousted by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan following a series of damaging scandals, new documents have revealed.
Dame Cressida's four-year tenure as Met commissioner has been thrown back into the spotlight after the recent case of serial rapist David Carrick, who was kept in the force under her leadership after being arrested on suspicion of rape.
The former chief faced a barrage of criticism during her time in charge, including over the conduct of male officers in the force in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder by PC Wayne Couzens.
Dame Cressida quit from her position after pressure from Mr Khan as he expressed concerns over the "erosion of trust and confidence" in the Met, according to a report published in 2022.
Tense and bitter messages were sent between Dick's senior aide and Khan's advisers in the period leading up to her resignation, according to the Guardian.
Robin Wilkinson, the Met’s former chief of corporate services, told the mayor's chief of staff that Dick was clearly "entitled to a full" severance package, which would amount to £500,000.
Dick’s salary was £240,000 a year, and she had 26 months remaining on her contract at the time of her resignation.
She reportedly felt "entitled" to the two years severance after being "pushed to stand aside".
Her severance was eventually settled at £170,000.
At the time of her resignation, Dick said "it is clear" that Mr Khan "no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue".
Her resignation came following a series of controversies which engulfed the Met Police last year.
Before she became commissioner, Dame Cressida was in charge of the operation that led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes, who was wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber.
Her time as Met chief was thrown back into the limelight following the case of serial rapist David Carrick, who recently admitted 49 sex offences, carried out a number of sickening sexual acts, from locking naked women in a cupboard under his stairs to branding them his "slaves".
PC David Carrick admitted 24 counts of rape against women between 2003 and 2020 in court on January 16.
The sick officer had already pleaded guilty to 43 charges, including 20 counts of rape, in December.
Carrick, 48, who was branded "B*****d Dave by colleagues, used popular dating apps such as Tinder to meet his victims.
The new head of the Metropolitan Police has published his nine-point plan to reform the force after a wake of scandals including the rapist cop David Carrick.
Sir Mark Rowley promised to turn around the force, which he insisted is full of "tens of thousands of hard-working and honest officers".
He said: "I am determined to win back Londoners' trust."We can succeed because of the dedicated, honest, often heroic, men and women who are the great majority of the Met. Our work has begun, but I must be candid.
