Met Police fights High Court battle for right to sack 'rogue' officers

Transcript

00:00The Metropolitan Police is fighting a High Court battle over the way it has been sacking so-called

00:05rogue officers in what could lead to a landmark decision on its efforts to clean up the force.

00:11One of those officers, Sergeant Lino Di Maria, is bringing a judicial review against the force

00:17after he faced fresh vetting and has been left on the verge of dismissal.

00:22After a series of scandals within the Met, not least the horrific case of Wayne Cousins,

00:28Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley promised he would clean up the force for good,

00:32getting rid of the bad officers.

00:34One of the ways they went about that was to change the process whereby past allegations

00:40against officers would be brought back up again.

00:43They may be subjected to a fresh vetting process

00:46and if they failed that procedure they could then be dismissed.

00:50Sergeant Di Maria is challenging the inherent fairness of the process being used against him.

00:56In the past he was accused twice of rape as well as allegations of domestic abuse

01:01and inappropriate behaviour.

01:02He denied all of the allegations and none of them led to any criminal or misconduct hearings.

01:08However, the Met has brought those allegations back up,

01:12put him through a fresh vetting process in 2023 which he failed

01:16and that led to him being up for dismissal.

01:19He says that his human rights have been breached

01:22and he's been denied access to a fair and proper hearing.

01:26This battle is being seen as particularly important for Scotland Yard

01:29as it seeks to clean up its reputation as a force.

01:34It's also being looked at by other police forces around the country

01:37as a test case as to the powers that senior officers can use

01:42in order to protect their force from so-called bad apples.

01:47The case in front of Mrs Justice Lange is expected to go on for two days

01:51before she will deliver her ruling.

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