The Metropolitan Police has made a further seven voluntary referrals to the police watchdog involving strip searches of children by officers.
The voluntary referrals relate to separate incidents, between December 2019 and March 2022, where children aged 14 to 17 were either strip searched by officers in custody or were subject to more intimate searches outside custody, Scotland Yard said.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct have already returned two of the referrals for internal investigation by the Met, and the watchdog is yet to announce whether it will investigate the remaining five cases, the force said.
The revelation comes after it emerged last week that four police officers had been served with gross misconduct notices in relation to the strip-searching a 15-year-old Black schoolgirl, identified only as Child Q, in a case which has sparked protests and widespread condemnation.
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