Baroness Jenny Jones, issued this statement in response to the conviction of Elite Metropolitan police officer David Carrick, as a serial rapist.

“The police service is finally coming to terms with having significant number of rapists and domestic abusers in its ranks. From the state sponsored abuses of the spy cops scandal, to the murder of Sarah Everard and the arrest of those at her vigil, the police have failed to deal with misogyny in their own ranks. The turning of a blind eye when women reported that their police officer partners were abusing them, is also part of this pattern of failure that has led to record low conviction rates for crimes of sexual violence against women. 

With six police services in special measures and hundreds of thousands of every day offences not being investigated as they are ‘no crimed’; the government is obsessed with passing draconian laws aimed at peaceful protestors, who commit no violent acts. The distorted priorities of Ministers who are afraid of protest against corruption, austerity and right wing policies, means that they wish to hand a mistrusted and failing police service the ability to arrest people who are thinking about protesting peacefully.”