The UK Supreme Court has declared that the failure of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to carry out an effective investigation into reports of sexual offences amounted to an infringement of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Between 2003 and 2008, London taxi driver John Worboys committed a series of sexual offences against various women. During this time, two of his victims reported his actions to the police. The first claimant, identified as DSD, was attacked in 2003. The second, identified as NBV, was attacked in 2007. Many other women also fell victim to Mr. Worboys throughout this period.
Both DSD and NBV claimed that the inaction of the police in carrying out an investigation into their complaints constituted a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR, under sections 7 and 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 which allow damages for breach of the Convention. Article 3 prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, placing a positive obligation on the State to take measures to protect its citizens from such treatment.
Proceedings recognised at the outset that the examination of the nature of the duty owed by MPS was a multi-faceted exercise. The claimants asserted that, in addition to a ‘systems duty’ whereby a State must have a system of laws and procedures in place to protect against such treatment, there is an ‘operational duty’. This entails effectively investigating reports of treatment specified in Article 3 and subsequently acting on the findings.
The MPS argued that this operational duty arises only where State agents are complicit in the alleged ill-treatment, and therefore the State is not obliged to provide a duty of care when a private citizen is responsible for the offences. It was maintained that it was not fair, just and reasonable to impose such a duty as it was inconsistent with judicial decisions which have found that the police owe a duty to investigate, detect and prosecute to the public at large, but not to individual citizens. The MPS also contended that the proposed requirement to carry out such investigations may result in the divergence of police resources and that the police should be able toconduct investigations in a non-defensive manner, without concern for the views and criticism of the courts.
The Court confirmed that Mr. Worboys’ crimes represented mistreatment coming under Article 3. It also affirmed, in line with MC v Bulgaria, that there is a positiveoperational dutyimposed upon relevant State authorities to conduct an effective investigation into crimes which involve serious violence to persons, whether that has been carried out by State agents or individual criminals. It dismissed as unrealistic and not a serious possibility that every minor crime would now be the subject of action under the Human Rights Act, and thereby affect police resources.
The Court outlined a number operational failings in the way in which the police handled the complaints, such as failure to collect evidence and failure to interview witnesses. Therefore, the MPS was judged to have breached the positive operational duty as imposed under Article 3, and the victims were awarded damages.
Click here for the judgment in Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v DSD and Anor.