[Cherie]

thvictim of crime who was sexually harassed by a senior detective is taking legal action against the Metropolitan Police for “enabling and normalising” misogyny after he kept his job.
Kristina O’Connor, now 33, called 101 after being attacked by a group of men who tried to steal her phone. When she was interviewed about the mugging by Detective Chief Inspector James Mason, who later became a right-hand man to Cressida Dick, the Met commissioner, he instead turned the conversation towards her love life and asked her out for dinner.
In emails sent from his official account, Mason, 43, then a detective sergeant, told her he was as “determined in my pursuit of criminals as I am of beautiful women”. Describing her as “amazingly hot”, he said that rejection of an officer’s advances was “frowned upon”.
Although the events happened in 2011, O’Connor said it had taken “strength and courage” to confront what had happened and report him. “By speaking out now I want to encourage more women to come forward about their negative experiences with the police. It’s difficult and takes courage, I know, but if enough women speak out, the Met won’t be able to dismiss them as ‘one-offs’,” O’Connor said.
After her complaint, Mason, who received a commendation for resilience and professionalism in his handling of the response to the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack, was found guilty at a hearing last year of gross misconduct that was sexually motivated. He kept his job and rank and still serves in the Met.
O’Connor has filed a judicial review against the Met and the head of the police conduct panel, saying that they failed to deal with her complaint appropriately. Her lawyers argue that the misconduct investigation was flawed and the terms of reference meant that Mason’s “discriminatory and predatory” behaviour was not adequately addressed.
The musician, who lives in London and is the daughter of Des O’Connor, the late television presenter and comedian, said: “The first step would be the Met acknowledging there’s a culture of misogyny. Even in the tiny minority of cases like mine, where the perpetrator is brought before a panel, charged and finally convicted of misconduct, my experience tells me that they are still protected, their jobs considered more important than my safety and my faith in the police. If what I have seen is the process by which the Met is held to account ... it is woefully inadequate, and something needs to change


Sunday Times