Met officer sacked after having sex with trainee in middle of ‘secluded’ street

A Metropolitan Police officer has been sacked after having non-consensual sex with a trainee cop in a London back street.

Street Duties Tutor PC Ridhwaan Zina had non-consensual sex with the trainee officer, known only as Trainee Y in hearing documents, by King’s Cross.

Zina was also accused of ‘intimate’ relations with a second trainee, known as X, whom he kissed for ‘several minutes’ in August 2022.

Both incidents happened on the night he joined a group of trainees drinking at Chapel Market in Angel, northeast London.

Zina, who joined the force’s team in Islington in 2019, had only weeks before signed a declaration stating ‘any sexual or emotional relationships with trainee constables was strictly prohibited’.

At around 10pm, Zina consensually kissed Trainee X having had a ‘good deal to drink’.

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said in his ruling that though this could be considered a ‘lesser offence’, the kissees were against the agreement and showed he ‘failed’ to consider his authority.

Zina left the pub with Trainee Y to buy condoms. Failing to book a hotel room – they didn’t have enough money – Zina and the student went to a ‘secluded’ back street ‘apparently round the side or the back of a building’.

There, according to submissions, the trainee told Zina she did not want to have sex out in the open before doing so on the ground.

After Zina ordered her a taxi, the trainee officer phoned her mother ‘disoriented and upset’. She told Zina days later that the sex was not consensual and lodged a complaint.

No action was taken against Zina after he was arrested, admitting to bosses he had sex with trainee Y but claimed it was consensual. He resigned before the misconduct hearing took place on July 18.

Taylor ruled that Zina should be dismissed without notice, having committed gross misconduct by having relations with the two trainee constables.

He breached the force’s code of conduct, the Standards of Professional Behaviour, ‘in respect of discreditable Conduct, Authority, Respect and Courtesy and Orders and Instructions’.

Street duties tutors act as mentors for trainee officers, taking them on coached patrols and responding to 999 calls.

But above all, Taylor said, the role is to act as an example to future police officers. Something he should have done given his ‘otherwise exemplary career’.

‘Instead, PC Zina set an example to trainee officers X and Y wholly at odds with the one he was required to display: his conduct failed entirely to demonstrate to them the restraint and self-discipline, and respect for others, that a constable must be able to display,’ Taylor said.

The assistant commissioner added that the incidents left both students ‘distressed’, likely denting their belief in the bosses – and the public’s.

The Met, the largest police force in Britain that covers London, is among the least trusted police forces. Just less than 35% of Londoners said they trust the Met.

Belief in those entrusted to protect them is especially low among women and people of colour, with researchers saying the years-long crisis of trust facing the Met is ‘monumental’.

Zina’s conduct, Taylor said, hasn’t helped. ‘Consequently, the harm to public confidence is, in this case, high,’ he said.

‘The fact that PC Zina had had a substantial amount to drink does not detract from the seriousness of his conduct,’ Taylor added.

‘If anything, it makes it worse: again, he failed to set the example he had been instructed to set.’

Taylor ruled that though Zina’s notice period was set to last until August, he should be missed without notice.

‘The public could not have confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service if it appeared not to take the kind of conduct PC Zina engaged extremely seriously,’ he said.

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