Internal review of rapist ex-Met officer is the equivalent of 'marking your own homework', says crime commentator
23 August 2023, 11:55 | Updated: 23 August 2023, 12:04
Danny Shaw: The Met can't be trusted to mark its own homework on Adam Provan
Danny Shaw said the Met "can't be trusted" to conduct its own investigation of Adam Provan, who has been jailed for 16 years after raping a 16-year-old girl and a female colleague.
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Provan, 44, was found guilty of raping a fellow police officer six times between 2003 and 2005, and twice raping a teenager who he met on a blind date after lying about his age in 2010.
Lauren Taylor, 29, was 16 when he attacked her. She has waived her right to anonymity and revealed she is "angry for the lack of remorse he’s shown throughout this whole process".
The crime, justice and policing commentator told Tom Swarbrick: "It's absolutely sickening when you read all the opportunities that the Met police had to root this officer out of the force."
He mentioned that the judge at Wood Green Crown Court, Noel Lucas KC, "was very critical of the Met, saying that they were in effect 'protecting one of their own', and those words should be ringing in the ears of the Metropolitan Police today".
Victim tells of her fight for justice as serial rapist former Met officer jailed for 16 years
"Once again, they have enabled a rapist to carry on working and committing offences", Mr Shaw continued.
He added that the next steps would be for the force "to be open about the officers that made the decisions that allowed this man to carry on in the Met".
The commentator noted that the force is conducting a review from its own internal directorate of professional standards, but said: "Surely we need the watchdog, the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) to look into that because it's marking your own homework, and as we've seen in this case and others, it's just not effective enough."
Mr Shaw also said Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has stressed the need for senior police officers to chair the misconduct hearings that can result in an officer being dismissed, but reiterated: "Please do not remove the element of outside, external scrutiny and independence from the misconduct system in the police."
"Surely, these cases are crying out for people from the outside to poke their nose into what's going on in the Met, because it can't be trusted just to make those decisions itself", he added.
