Former Met police officer accused of using sex workers while on duty | Metropolitan police

A former Metropolitan police officer allegedly used sex workers while on duty amid a major investigation into standards of conduct, the Guardian has revealed.

Britain’s largest police force has been described as “institutionally misogynistic” after widespread claims that a “toxic” sexist culture was allowed to flourish for decades.

Imran Patel resigned from his position as a police officer last year following numerous reports about his behavior at work over a nine-month period. He was also the subject of a fraud investigation but was told he would not face criminal prosecution.

Former civil servant Louise Casey is accused of using sex workers and accessing adult websites while on shift in May 2022, as an independent review into behavior and culture within the force comes.

The Casey investigation was launched by London mayor Sadiq Khan after Wayne Couzens was sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnap, rape and murder of marketing executive Sarah Everard.

Couzens, now 52, ​​worked in the Met’s parliamentary and diplomatic protection command. He kidnapped Everard, 33, as she walked home from a friend’s house in south London in March 2021 and showed her a warrant card before pretending to arrest her for breaching Covid regulations.

Everard’s murder sparked a national debate about misogyny among Britain’s police forces.

In March 2023, a different colleague, Casey, concluded that the Met was “institutionally misogynistic”.

He said: “The murder of Sarah Everard and other appalling crimes committed by Met officers against women in London has highlighted the shocking treatment and attitudes towards women in the Met.

“Despite improvements in gender representation and increasingly flexible working practices, women are not treated equally in the workforce; new hires resign at four times the rate of all probationers; a third of Met women we surveyed reported personally experiencing sexism at work; 12% reported experiencing direct sexual harassment or assault.”

An earlier investigation by police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found officers at London’s Charing Cross police station sent “numerous” messages containing jokes about raping colleagues and visiting sex workers.

An undercover investigation by BBC Panorama last month alleged sexist attitudes persisted at the station. A sergeant was filmed making striking statements about his sex life to his colleagues, despite the objections of some of his female colleagues. In the footage, he is seen describing a woman he met online as “so fat that she had two pussies.”

Patel is also accused of committing fraud and abusing his position as a civil servant by obtaining a driver’s license and money from a member of the public in August 2021.

In March 2022, it was claimed that a stab vest was found in his home “without any legal reason or reasonable excuse”.

The investigation into Patel is being carried out by the IOPC following guidance from the Met’s anti-corruption unit.

An IOPC spokesman said: “We investigated the officer criminally for the alleged theft but decided not to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service in January 2024.”

The Met said Patel left office in July last year. Although he resigned, he faces a full misconduct hearing in January.