Former police chief tells of sexual assaults by colleagues

A former police chief constable has spoken about how she was sexually assaulted by two senior colleagues when she was a younger officer.

Sue Fish, who retired from Nottinghamshire Police in 2017, has previously said there is a "toxic culture of sexism" in policing.

Ms Fish said she did not report the first assault as she thought she would not be believed.

She reported the second assault but the officer remained in post.

"Unwanted touching would be probably the best way of describing it," she said of the two assaults, which she added were "technically indecent assaults".

Of the first assault, she said: "I was a lot younger, felt a lot more vulnerable, there were no witnesses, it was a senior officer, he was very well liked, very well regarded - who was going to believe me?"

She added: "The second situation was exactly the same, only I was an older, but still very much the junior, officer."

She spoke about the assaults on ITV Tonight programme Women: How Safe Are We?, made the wake the death of Sarah Everard, who went missing while walking home from a friend's house on 3 March in south London.

Her remains were later found in a woodland in Kent and a Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with her murder and kidnap.

Ms Fish has previously described the Met Police's response to a vigil for Ms Everard as "institutional" misogyny.

The force faced criticism over its handling of the vigil, where officers handcuffed women and removed them from Clapham Common in south London.

Under Ms Fish's leadership, Nottinghamshire Police was the first force to record misogyny as a hate crime in 2016.

She joined the force in 1986, but has not said which force or forces she was working for when she was assaulted.

She has worked across uniform and detective roles in Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands, the Met Police and nationally.

She said the second man who assaulted her worked for a different police force and was "very, very senior".

Ms Fish added she believed assaults in police forces were "still carrying on, despite the best endeavours of the leadership of the service".

"I hope the tragic events of the past few weeks will actually serve as a wake-up call to policing," she said.

"If we want women, as half our population, to have confidence in their police service, the police service needs to listen and to respond accordingly."

The Police Federation has been contacted for a comment.

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