Met chief Sir Mark Rowley targets London’s 1,000 most popular sex predators

The Met commissioner said he wanted to use the “best available science” to identify and then prosecute men to achieve “active protection of women and children” from sexual assault, harassment and other forms of abuse.

He added that his forces are already trying to identify the most dangerous “hundreds and thousands” and that he is determined to make more progress on his mission next year.

Sir Mark’s decision to make improving the safety of women a priority follows a series of scandals, including the kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer and other cases exposing misogyny in the police, which have undermined public confidence in policing in the capital.

Shortly after taking over as commissioner last September, he told the Standard he planned to repair the damage by using counter-terrorism tactics to target predators before they strike, and gave a fresh indication of his intentions in fresh remarks to this newspaper in of Ealing Police. station

“I expect that we will continue to increase the number of rapists and other serious sex offenders that we prosecute,” he said when asked about his ambitions for next year.

“But this is a reaction to the crimes that happened. I also expect that we have made progress in identifying the first hundred and first thousand of the tens of thousands of predators so that we can actively pursue and disrupt them before they commit any further crimes.

“So actively protecting women and children is the main award I’m aiming for this year.”

The Met said 153 rape suspects had been arrested in Sir Mark’s first 100 days as commissioner and that the ongoing sweep of sex offenders would focus on uncovering evidence, including patterns of offenders’ behaviour, that could help secure convictions, rather than focusing on to the applicants’ accounts.

Sir Mark added: “There are tens of thousands of men in London who have been involved in domestic violence, rape, harassment, pedophilia over the last few years, what we’re going to do is look at those tens of thousands, assess which are the most dangerous using the best available science and then follow it to do the best job we can to protect the women and children of London. “

As well as Sarah Everard’s murder in March 2021, other horrific crimes, including the murders of primary school teacher Sabina Nessa in Kidbrooke in September of the same year and law graduate Zara Aleena in Ilford last June, have highlighted the issue of violence against women . in the capital. All three women were killed by strangers after being attacked in the street. Other women have died as a result of attacks by men known to them for domestic violence-related murders.

The latest death was Stephanie Hansen, 39, who was found dead with stab wounds at a home in Hayes on New Year’s Eve. The man, Sheldon Rodriguez, 29, appeared in court Tuesday on charges of her murder.

Another man, Mark Moody, 54, also appeared in court charged with murdering Maureen Gitow, 24, from Lewisham. She went missing on December 5 after she was last seen in Deptford and police believe she was murdered, although her body has not been found.

Sir Mark, a Cambridge maths graduate, has made it clear since taking up his role at Scotland Yard that he believes better use of data can help police focus their efforts more effectively, and is due to elaborate on his approach in a speech next week . using technology and science to fight crime.

He also vowed to stamp out misogyny in his force in an attempt to repair the damage caused by scandals including racist and misogynistic behavior by some officers at Charing Cross police station and the WhatsApp posting by two officers of photographs they took of Wembley. homicide victims Bibao Henry and Nicole Smallman.