STRIPPED GIRL ‘HAD HEAD SMASHED ON FLOOR’

THE mother of a 14-year-old autistic girl handcuffed and strip-searched by the Met while on her period in front of male officers today said the ordeal had left her daughter traumatised.

The girl, referred to as “Olivia” to keep her identity secret, was subjected to the search after already being in custody for 20 hours despite police being told that she was particularly vulnerable because of her autism.

According to her mother, the mixedrace girl also had her head smashed to the floor as she was pinned down for the search and was left so traumatised that she tried to kill herself.

The Met, which is facing legal action over the incident, is carrying out an internal inquiry to “determine the appropriateness of the search and the way that it was conducted”.

Today, however, the girl’s mother “Lisa” told of her anger in a BBC interview for the File on 4 programme. “They’ve pinned her to the floor and they cut off her underwear in front of these grown male officers,” she said.

She said she was “absolutely furious” about what had happened to her daughter and added: “I was even more shocked because I’d made a point of telling police when I rang them that my child is autistic. She doesn’t like people touching her and yet they stripped her.”

Describing the impact of the search on Olivia, her mother said: “She became quite reclusive. She spent a lot of time in her room and she continued to selfharm in secret.

“She was saying that she’s not going to be here any more and she’s not going to live to be an adult. And then a few weeks later, she attempted to commit suicide.”

The disclosure of the incident, which happened in December 2020, follows the recent controversy over the strip search of 15-year-old black schoolgirl, Child Q, in the same month.

The new incident was triggered after Olivia was in a group accused of a knifepoint robbery.

After being held for 20 hours, a piece of sharpened wood, which her mother said was for self-harming, fell out of her sports bar. A small blade was also found.

Olivia was found not guilty after magistrates accepted that the items were used for self-harming.