Met boss’s fury as rotten cops can’t be sacked by removing vetted status due to human rights laws
ROTTEN cops cannot be sacked by removing their vetted status — due to human rights laws, a High Court judge has ruled.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley branded the decision “absolutely absurd” and said it had “left policing in a hopeless position”.
It derails a purge at Britain’s biggest force and means 96 officers already dismissed or forced to resign can now return.
They will be put on special leave with another 29 suspect cops currently on gardening leave.
Meanwhile, over 100 more cops in the early stages of vetting reviews will see them shelved pending a Met appeal.
The cash-strapped force must pay their full salaries despite them being unable to work.
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Speaking outside New Scotland Yard, Sir Mark called on the Government to act “as a matter of extreme urgency”.
He added: “We now have no mechanism to rid the Met of officers not fit to hold vetting — those who cannot be trusted to work with women, or those who cannot be trusted to enter the homes of vulnerable people.”
The Met launched its Operation Assure re-vetting programme in the wake of armed cop Wayne Couzens murdering 33-year-old Sarah Everard in March 2021.
It identified more than 1,400 officers and 218 staff with sex and domestic violence complaints against them.
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They included Sgt Lino Di Maria, who joined the police in 2004 and passed his last vetting clearance in 2017.
In 2019 accusations surfaced of sex attacks including rape, indecent exposure, inappropriate work behaviour and domestic abuse.
The Sun can reveal Sgt Di Maria worked in a unit tackling violence against women and girls while an internal review was carried out into him.
He denied the allegations and none was upheld, but he failed his re-vetting in August 2023 and lost an appeal against the risk assessment in February last year.
He applied for a judicial review of the re-vetting system, backed by the rank-and-file Met Police Federation.
Judge Mrs Justice Laing yesterday ruled the Met had broken the law by being in breach of the Human Rights Act by denying Sgt Di Lino a fair hearing.
She said the force’s powers “do not extend to the dismissal of a police officer by reason of withdrawal of vetting clearance”.