Diversity Push Let Alleged Rapist Into Met Ranks

A damning review has exposed how a serial rapist Metropolitan Police officer was permitted to join the force despite prior rape allegations, amid a frantic push to boost diversity during a national recruitment surge.

PC Cliff Mitchell’s 2020 application was initially rejected after vetting uncovered a 2017 accusation of raping a child, yet a senior panel overturned this to meet ethnic minority targets, allowing him to embark on a horrifying campaign of rape against two victims, one under 13, while serving.

Mitchell, jailed for life with a minimum 13-year term for kidnapping and rape, stands among 131 Met officers and staff inadequately vetted who later committed crimes or misconduct.

The probe, spanning a decade to March 2023, also highlighted PC David Carrick—branded one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders—who slipped through in 2017 unchecked for domestic abuse claims, earning 37 life sentences.

Revealed in Thursday’s report, thousands endured lax checks during the July 2019 to March 2023 uplift programme, where senior Met leaders bypassed national guidelines to secure 4,557 recruits, fearing lost funding.

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This scramble under the Police Uplift Programme—aimed at restoring 20,000 officers slashed in austerity—saw deviations that skipped references, ignored Special Branch and MoD verifications, and reversed refusals, fostering risks that enabled harmful officers and eroded public trust.

In total, 5,073 recruits lacked proper vetting: 4,528 missed Special Branch scrutiny, 431 evaded MoD checks, and 114 had rejections quashed by internal panels.

Additionally, 3,338 faced only cursory renewals, while the Met estimates 1,200 of 27,300 applicants might have been barred under standard procedures.

Separately, 17,355 officers and staff from 2018 to April 2022 had unchecked or absent references, with projections suggesting 250 would have been denied employment.

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Offences by these individuals ranged from drug misuse and racism to violence and affray, underscoring how isolated decisions compounded into systemic vulnerabilities.

The report attributes this to political pressures and target-driven imperatives, where unmet quotas meant forfeited funds to rival forces.

Since Sir Mark Rowley’s September 2022 appointment as Commissioner—following his earlier senior Met tenure from 2011 to 2018—1,500 officers have been dismissed in a professed force cleanse.

Of 730 reviewed vetting cases, 39 required re-examination: 23 cleared, one resigned, another sacked unrelatedly, six pending, and eight flagged for potential dismissal.

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Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams acknowledged: “In publishing this report, we are being open and transparent about past vetting and recruitment practices that led, in some cases, to unsuitable people joining the Met.

“We have been honest with Londoners on many occasions about previous shortcomings in our professional standards approach. This review is part of our ongoing work to demand the highest standards across the Met so the public can have trust and confidence in our officers.

“We found that some historical practices did not meet the strengthened hiring and vetting standards we have today. We identified these issues ourselves and have fixed them quickly while making sure any risk to the public has been properly and effectively managed.

“It is important to highlight that the Met recruits hundreds of officers and staff every year—the overwhelming majority of exemplary character who are dedicated to protecting the public.”

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered a probe by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary into the Met’s processes, declaring: “Abandoning vetting checks on officers was a dereliction of the Met’s duty to keep London safe.

“Londoners rightly expect officers to undergo robust checks so that the brightest and best—not criminals—are policing our streets.

“I have asked the Chief Inspector of Constabulary to carry out an inspection as I seek to restore trust in the force’s ability to protect and serve the public.”