Cressida Dick: “Lessons will be learned”. It’s a nice promise but we’ve heard it too many times before. She has had plenty of time to devise a plan for restoring trust and she should have laid it out – but she didn’t, and she hasn’t.

I called it right, didn’t I?

Here’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick’s statement after former officer Wayne Couzens was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard. It’s more than five minutes long but you need to hear it before reading on:

Where was the contrition? This was a member of her organisation, who had been vetted and found fit to represent it despite numerous reports of behaviour that should have caused serious concern in the past. His nickname at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary was “The Rapist”, for crying out loud!

And where was the plan to make the police safe again and restore confidence? On its Twitter feed yesterday, the Met promised “we’ll comment further when hearing is complete”. Well, it is complete and all we’ve had from Commissioner Dick is the hackneyed old assurance that “lessons will be learned”.

And that’s what I called yesterday. I said

They’re likely to say that lessons have been learned – but nobody will act upon them.

I was right on the first part of that, and you can bet I’ll be right on the second.

Others certainly seem to think so. One of the earliest responses to Commissioner Dick’s statement came from a Twitter user who stated: “As a result of this case, I clearly need to advise my daughter how to act/respond to male police officers until such time it’s possible again to have any trust in your organisation.”

I’m willing to wager that’s the majority view.

The judge in the case said there was no evidence that the Met closed ranks to protect one of its officers…

… and I have no doubt that he was right. That is not the issue here.

The issue is the fact that we are seeing no effort to change the structural problems within the Metropolitan Police that allowed a man like Wayne Couzens to be put in a position where he could prey upon women.

Allow me to reiterate what I stated previously about the result of this case: women will be left in greater fear of violence against them than ever – not because of men, as some in politics and the media are signalling, but because of the police.

Cressida Dick had an opportunity to reassure us all that her organisation would take specific steps to restore trust. She has made a conscious decision not to.

Are we really going to just lie back and accept that?

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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