A woman groomed by a predatory Met Police officer says despite receiving a substantial payout from the force, she has not had “truth or accountability” from them.
Lorraine – not her real name – said the “nine-year battle to be believed has been horrendous, far worse than anything he put me through” and she regretted reporting him.
The Met has apologised and accepted her experience with the Professional Standards unit had compounded her distress.
Her experience was among those highlighted by Baroness Casey in her scathing review of the Met in 2023, which said the force was “institutionally misogynistic”. The force said it was working to improve its culture.
Lorraine met former PC Phil Hunter when he made a welfare visit to her home in 2017. He was found guilty of gross misconduct at a disciplinary panel in August 2024.
The panel heard that, over a period of two years, he sent her inappropriate messages and tried to isolate her from friends and family as part of a “deliberate” and “predatory” plan to have a sexual relationship with her.
When Hunter retired in 2019, he was under investigation for a case involving another vulnerable woman he had met during a welfare visit and with whom he had started a sexual relationship.
He was found guilty of gross misconduct a year later for his behaviour towards her.
Although the Met’s directorate of professional standards (DPS) were aware Hunter had already targeted another victim in similar circumstances, Lorraine’s complaints were ignored.
“The first officers I spoke to said that police predators only exist in the mind of Daily Mail readers,” she said. “That lots of officers meet partners in that way and that there was absolutely nothing to it.”
In 2023, Lorraine’s experience was highlighted among the case studies in the damning review by Baroness Casey, which said she had been “traumatised” by both PC Hunter and her treatment by the DPS.
The report called for urgent reforms to an “institutionally misogynist” force, including within the misconduct system, and said Lorraine’s case should be reviewed.
In August 2024, a disciplinary panel finally took place, but only after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) intervened and recommended the Met should hold one.
Hunter, who was described as a “sexual predator who used his position to take advantage of vulnerable women”, was found guilty of gross misconduct for a second time.