Serving Met Police officer charged with rape over alleged incident while off-duty

An officer who served in the Metropolitan Police’s East Area Command Unit was charged by the City of London Police on Wednesday with rape over an alleged incident that took place at the weekend.

A spokesperson for the Met Police confirmed that the officer, 28-year-old PC Adam Zaman, has now been suspended from duty, following the decision to charge him with rape.

“I recognise that the public will be concerned to hear that a serving police officer has been charged with such a serious offence,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Trevers, Policing Commander for the East Area Command Unit. Trevers added that authorities “acted swiftly when this allegation was reported to us.”

The police service has informed the Directorate of Professional Standards of the incident and the situation has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.This is the latest scandal to hit the Met Police service. Earlier in October, the force’s commissioner, Cressida Dick, said she was “deeply concerned” after 46-year-old police officer David Carrick was charged with rape over an alleged assault that reportedly took place while he was off duty on September 4, 2020.

Some 771 Met Police officers and staff have faced sexual misconduct allegations over the past 11 years, with only 83 individuals being fired from the service, according to data obtained by iNews under a Freedom of Information request. During that time, 163 officers from the Met were arrested for sexual offences, with 38 of those later convicted.

The latest allegation comes in the wake of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens, who used his official police ID while off duty to fake an arrest to abduct the 33-year-old. Couzens was later handed a rare whole-life sentence for the crime that sent shockwaves through the UK.

The Met Police has appointed social welfare expert Baroness Louise Casey to conduct a review of the culture and standards within the service in an effort to rebuild the public’s trust in the force following the recent revelations.

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