Woman recalls moment she was strip-searched by police aged 12

A woman has described being strip-searched by police when she was 12 years old.

Georgia Wood, now 20, said the officers were “horrible and demeaning” and the incident had “really affected” her life, leaving her lacking confidence and suffering panic attacks.

Ms Wood was taken into police custody in south Wales eight years ago with her mother, who was suspected of possessing drugs.

No illegal substances were found on Ms Wood or her mother, Karen Archer, who wasn't charged with an offence.

According to figures acquired by the BBC from 13 police forces in England and Wales, more than 5,000 children aged 17 and under were strip-searched between 2013 and 2015.

More than 4,000 of those searches, supposed to detect drugs or concealed weapons, were carried out by the Metropolitan Police in London.

The BBC's 5 Live Investigates asked all 45 police forces in the UK for strip-search figures, but only 13 responded with information.

In total across all age groups, the same 13 forces carried out 113,000 searches in the last three years that involved the removal of more than a suspect's outer clothing – which is the precise definition of a strip-search.

As well as the Met, they were Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, City of London, Cambridgeshire, North Wales, Bedfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Cumbria, Essex, Cleveland, Hertfordshire and Lancashire.

Ms Wood said she had gone with her mother to look after their horses when police pulled the pair over, initially claiming there was a problem with a tyre on Ms Archer's car.

The mother and daughter were separated and driven in two different cars to a police station about 10 miles away.

“I got to the police station and Georgia was already in the custody suite waiting to be searched,” Ms Archer told the BBC, “and I said ‘you can’t search her, she’s 12’ , and they said ‘yes, we know’, and she said ‘you can’t search me, I’m 12’ and they just said ‘well, you’re going to be searched’, and they took her away.

“I was told to be quiet and sit down.”

After the incident, Ms Wood said her mother became over-protective.

“It has really affected my life. I don’t really go out,” Ms Wood said, describing the ordeal as “life-changing”, before starting to cry.

“What they did that day changed everything. Everything,” Ms Archer said. “She’s not the child that we started off with that morning.”

Ms Wood said she took off her clothes when the two female officers ordered her to, and turned to face the wall to avoid them seeing her front. One of the policewomen “reached round and touched the front of me just to make sure there was nothing concealed,” she said.

An appropriate adult is supposed to be present when anyone under the age of 18 is strip-searched. That should be someone chosen by the child, who they feel safe and comfortable with.

In Ms Wood’s case, her mother was not allowed to stay with her.

Data gathered by the Children’s Rights Alliance of England from five UK police forces found an appropriate adult was not present in almost half of strip-searches of children between 2008 and 2013.

Aside from being alone, Ms Wood said the most traumatic part of her ordeal was not being told what was going on and not being treated with respect.

“They didn't explain to me [that they were going to conduct a strip-search] until we got to the police station,” Ms Wood told the BBC. “And they literally just said: ‘this is what's going to happen and we’re going to do it’.”

“For someone to just be so horrible and demeaning, I just thought ‘well, if I'm meant to respect my elders, aren't my elders meant to respect me'?”

“And I really didn't feel respected in that situation.”

Samuel Genen, a lawyer at Ahmed Rahman Carr solicitors in London, has legally challenged policy relating to strip-searching women in custody, particularly in prison. He said changes need to be made to the way in which strip-searches are conducted and the circumstances in which they are deemed appropriate.

Strip-searches are often extremely damaging to women and girls, Mr Genen told The Independent. Women who have mental health problems or are victims of sexual abuse can be particularly traumatised by the procedure.

He described strip-searching as “endemic” in police custody and prison, and said he knew one woman who had ended up sectioned because she had had an emotional breakdown after being strip-searched.

He said: “For a 12 year old girl to go through that, of course it’s going to scar you for life, isn’t it?”

He said police officers should explain to people what exactly they intend to do and why, and they should do risk assessments before conducting searches.

“I think it really helps women to understand, to have it explained why its happening, because then you can rationalise it,’ he said.

If the search was not being done for a good reason, he said it should not be done at all. “If you hand something over, why do you still need to go through the search? That’s the question which I always ask.”

“I think the other thing that is really concerning to me is [the lack of] a risk assessment before and after," he said. “It’s not super onerous to do a tickbox exercise just to say is this person at risk of suicide, does this person have any medical issues, or health issues, or mental health issues or sexual abuse issues?”

Like Ms Lambe, Mr Genen worried strip-searching was often just a display of power.

He said: “The biggest problem, the thing the police wont tell you and [the] prison [service] wont tell you is how often things are actually found, the reality is almost never, so then what does it [strip-searching] become? It’s just a show of force, that can be very very easily equated to a show of violence for these women.”

The Met said 5.1 per cent of children arrested in 2015 were strip-searched compared to 12.2 per cent of adults.

The force told the BBC: “Strip-searching is a vital power in police custody to not only identify and seize evidence but also to ensure the safety and security of all detainees and staff.

“Each search must be based on an objective assessment of the need and proportionality to search the person to that extent. Legal safeguards are applied to ensure the welfare needs of the detainee are considered and met.”

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, described the figures as “very troubling”.

“I think this is quite concerning because we know so little about why so many strip-searches are taking place,” she said.

“It's really distressing for people and I think the thing about a strip-search is, it is so intrusive, for especially if you're talking about children or teenagers.

“That's why this should never be done lightly and the police need to understand the impact this can have on individuals and why it has to be justified.”

The Home Office has set up a working group to establish whether extra safeguards are needed to ensure that strip-searches are being carried out fairly and with adequate supervision.

A spokesman told the BBC it was committed to giving the police the “necessary tools” to do their job.

“But the use of all powers warrants proper accountability and transparency. We are currently considering whether additional safeguards are required when police conduct searches requiring the removal of more than outer clothing.”

Ms Wood was eventually awarded £17,000 in compensation by South Wales Police, and Ms Archer £1,000.

South Wales Police said officers admitted they had mistakenly carried out a strip-search without an appropriate adult present and two officers had received “management action”.

But Ms Wood said the ordeal had changed her life for the worse.

“I don’t really trust anyone,” Ms Wood said. “I have little to no respect for the police because at that time they had no respect for me.

“I don’t trust that they know what they’re doing, that they’re trained properly or even that they know the law.

“I feel like they’re people who have just got their qualifications and just been let loose on the general public to do what they want,” she said. “That’s not right.”