Scotland Yard sends written apologies after guilty verdict on chef who
assaulted 71 women
A specially trained police unit spent seven years trying and failing to
catch the serial sex attacker. A new team of Met officers solved the
case in three days
By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent
Friday, 27 March 2009
One of Britain's most prolific sex attackers could have been caught
years earlier if it was not for a series of errors by police officers
who continually missed chances to catch him.
Kirk Reid is believed to have sexually assaulted at least 71 women in
seven years. But he was allowed to continue unhindered by police
officers, supposedly specially trained in catching sex offenders, even
though they had his name, DNA and car registration.
The 44-year-old, a chef at Camberwell College in south London, first
attacked in 2001 and was not arrested until 2008 even though he became
known to Wandsworth's specialist Sapphire team in 2004. It was not until
January 2008, when the Metropolitan Police's serious crime team took
over the investigation, that Reid was caught. In that four-year period,
Reid attacked 20 women.
The team of officers that eventually arrested Reid, led by Detective
Inspector Justin Davies, took just three days to solve a case that had
eluded detectives at the Wandsworth Sapphire team for seven years.
The case is the second high-profile sex crime investigation that has
been bungled by the Met's Sapphire units – teams of officers trained in
dealing with sexual offences. Earlier this month, John Worboys, a black
cab driver who is believed to have assaulted 85 women, was convicted.
That investigation too was hindered by police incompetence.
Yesterday Reid, a football referee from Mitcham, south London, was
convicted of 26 sexual offences, but the revelation that he went
unchecked for four years has prompted Scotland Yard to make a public
apology. Written apologies have already been sent to the 20 women who
were attacked after Reid became known to police.
Following yesterday's conviction at Kingston Crown Court, Commander Mark
Simmons said: "The standard of investigation was not what we as an
organisation, or the victims, should have expected. Reid should have
been arrested sooner and I, on behalf of the Metropolitan Police
Service, and as head of Sapphire, am sorry those women who were
subsequently attacked by him have been caused unnecessary suffering."
He also referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints
Commission. It is usually rare for the police to report themselves to
the IPCC without a third party complaint but, after the Worboys case, it
is the second time in a month that Cmdr Simmons has had to take such
action.
Cmdr Simmons said: "I am conscious of the potential impact that these
cases will have on public confidence in terms of the willingness of
people who experience sexual assault to come to us. Am I concerned about
how this is going to appear to people? Yes, I am concerned. I am really
concerned. My concern is that victims will read into this and think
there is no point in coming to us and I do not want them to think that."
Deborah Glass, from the IPCC, added: "The fact that Reid was identified
as a suspect in 2004 and yet went on to sexually assault more women
before he was arrested in 2008 is a real cause for concern. The public
will understandably ask if some of these attacks could have been
prevented and, indeed, if the police took the victims as seriously as
they should."
Reid would stalk his victims late at night as they walked home in the
Balham, Clapham and Tooting area of south London. He would look for
women being dropped off by taxis or cars and staked out Tube stations
and the stops along the N155 bus route.
Once he had identified a victim, he would follow her to her doorstep and
attack from behind, putting one hand over her mouth, and use his free
hand to grope her. He would rarely speak to his victims, and ran away
when the women screamed or attempted to fight him off.
Reid's first attack was on 2 August 2001 when he indecently assaulted a
woman, who was six months' pregnant, in broad daylight. On 18 August
that year, he indecently assaulted a 61-year-old woman in Battersea.
From that woman, police recovered a partial DNA sample of her attacker.
In December 2001, he struck again, in Crawborough Road, Tooting. Again,
a partial DNA sample of the attacker was recovered from the victim's
fingernails. It was not until March 2002, when Reid raped a woman in
Barringer Square, Tooting, that police obtained a full DNA profile, but
it would be another eight months before the three attacks were linked.
In September 2002, officers noted that a series of 26 indecent assaults
in the Wandsworth area, dating back to 2001, had the same method and had
probably been carried out by the same man. Realising they were looking
for a serial sex attacker, officers looked again at the December 2001
and March 2002 attacks and established they too were part of the series.
They now had a DNA profile of the attacker, but, because Reid had no
previous convictions – he was acquitted of indecent assault in 1995 – no
match was found on the DNA database.
Just two months later, officers missed a chance to catch him. In
December 2002, the police received a call from a member of the public
who reported a man following a woman. A police officer stopped Reid. The
incident alarmed the officer so much that he submitted an official
report on the matter, but no one acted upon it.
Reid evaded the attentions of the police for a further year before
officers missed yet another chance to apprehend him. In January 2004, a
man called the police to report a woman being assaulted by the driver of
a red Volkswagen Golf. The caller did not give an accurate location but
gave the car's registration number. The call was not followed up and no
police officer ran a check on the number plate. The car belonged to
Reid.
The following month, Reid was stopped again by police after an officer
saw him beeping his car horn at a woman. The female officer ran the
car's number plate through the system and noticed that it was the same
vehicle as reported in the December incident. She warned the Sapphire
team and Reid was named a "person of interest" in relation to the serial
sex attacker investigation but was not arrested or interviewed.
It was not until four years later that Reid was finally captured. On 28
January 2008, the case, codenamed Operation Anflora, was passed to
detectives in the Serious Crime Command. After reading the file,
officers there realised that Reid was a probable suspect and three days
later, on 31 January, took a DNA sample from Reid who told officers he
had "nothing to worry about".
But the sample matched those recovered from the victims seven years
previously and Reid was arrested on 2 February last year.
Http://www.independ
apologies-after-
1655359.html
Friday, 27 March 2009
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