How lazy British police allowed a serial sex attacker to roam free for four years and attack up to 100 women

Three bungling police officers are facing the sack after allowing a sex predator to roam free, attacking dozens of women four years after he was named as a suspect. Kirk Reid, who sexually assaulted up to 100 women between 2001 and 2008, could have been caught as early as December 2002, but investigating sex attacks was not a priority for officers who were busy chasing burglary and street crime targets.

In a 'shameful chapter in the history of the Metropolitan Police Service', officers missed three opportunities to arrest the sex attacker between 2002 and 2004, the police watchdog said today.

The 45-year-old chef and children's football coach pounced on at least 30 women in the time between police quizzing him after he was spotted following a woman in December 2002 and his eventual arrest in February 2008.

Today one of his victims told of her shock after a damning report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission revealed a catalogue of blunders. Candice Marsh, now 30, was attacked by the football coach in December 2001. Then 22, she was on her way home from a Christmas party when she was suddenly grabbed from behind, shoved to the ground and molested by powerful 6ft athlete.

His DNA was recovered from underneath her fingernails after she managed to fight him off. But police failed to get a DNA sample from Reid until 2008- despite him being named as a suspect four years earlier.

Waiving her right to anonymity, Miss Marsh said: "When I heard about all the other women who were attacked I was shocked. 'I don't understand how the police missed him. 'If there really were opportunities that they could have caught him, it's shocking they didn't. 'There were so many chances. It is so sad for those women who were attacked that could have been prevented - it didn't have to happen to them.'

At the time police were convinced another man was responsible for the string of attacks on women walking home after getting off night buses in Balham and Tooting in south west London - even though his DNA did not match samples taken. When a member of the public reported Reid stalking a lone female in December 2002, police stopped him but failed to take his DNA.

In January 2004, police received a report of a man assaulting a woman in a car owned by Reid, but again no action was taken.

Weeks later Reid was seen in his car by a female PC tooting his horn at a lone woman in the same area. The PC told her superiors that Reid lived close to the scene of the attacks, he matched the witnesses' description and he had been accused of indecent assault in 1996, of which he was later acquitted.

Reid was named as a suspect in March 2004 and surveillance on his home was ordered. But due to technical problems with a camera recording his movements, only seven days of filming was carried out before surveillance was dropped due to 'holiday commitments' and Reid was dismissed as a suspect.

In 2005 a superintendent cleared a file on suspects in the case off his desk, telling a junior officer he did not want to see them.

It wasn't until a second police team was called in to review the evidence in 2008 that they solved the case - in just three days. Reid was later jailed for life last year for 27 assaults.

Three senior officers at Scotland Yard face a disciplinary hearing after failing to prioritise the case of serial sex attacker Kirk Reid in a six-year investigation. Toay IPCC Commissioner Deborah Glass said: 'The failure to take a serial sex offender off the streets of London years earlier is a shameful chapter in the history of the Metropolitan Police Service.

'When considered alongside the failings in the case of John Worboys, their overall effect on the confidence of the victims of sexual offences in the police response cannot be overstated. 'The lack of resources allocated to the investigation, pressure in relation to performance and targets, and the constant change of heads of department undoubtedly did not help. 'But in my view none of these factors provides real mitigation for the sustained failure by senior supervisory officers to give this investigation the priority it required and to get a grip on what was plainly a long-standing pattern of terrifying offences committed within a single borough.'

A superintendent and two inspectors will now face a full misconduct hearing. Another superintendent and a sergeant have been issued with verbal reprimands.

The litany of errors comes after the Met was also heavily criticised over the 'shambolic' investigation of black cab rapist John Worboys who could have been caught five years earlier.

Today Scotland Yard apologised to Reid's victims and said it had overhauled sex offences investigations. Commander Maxine de Brunner said: 'We are deeply sorry for the harm suffered by all of his victims and for failing to bring Reid to justice earlier.

'The IPCC report acknowledges the significant amount of work which has already been carried out by the MPS in the way we deal with victims of rape and sexual assault, in response to the Worboys and Reid cases.'

Original report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here