O’Connor daughter sues Met and says: I don’t trust police

Kristina O’Connor, now 33, was sent numerous inappropriate messages by DCI James Mason after he responded to her report of an attempted robbery in October 2011.

The officer asked her out to dinner while taking her statement about the incident, in which she was assaulted by a group of men trying to steal her phone.

DCI Mason, who went on to work alongside Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, then sent Ms O’Connor a series of personal emails including one telling her she was “amazingly hot”.

Ms O’Connor, the daughter of late comedian Des O’Connor, told the PA news agency: “I no longer trust the police. I feel that I am as likely to be abused by a police officer as I am by anyone else and perhaps even more likely, as I’ve seen that police officers can harm people with impunity.

“I am fearful of having to call or depend upon the police.”

Following her complaint about DCI Mason, who was at the time of the incident a detective sergeant, a panel at a police misconduct hearing last year found him guilty of gross misconduct.

The Met has confirmed he remains a serving officer.

“I feel appalled that the officer in question is still serving … I question what it takes for an officer to be dismissed. It makes a mockery of the misconduct process that he continues to serve,” Ms O’Connor said.

Lawyers for Ms O’Connor are arguing that the force “failed to properly investigate” the complaint as a case of gender discrimination.

They are seeking a judicial review of how the investigation was handled.

Nancy Collins, a solicitor at Hodge Jones and Allen, said the case pointed to “more than just a rotten apple” within the police force.

Speaking to the PA news agency, she said: “(Ms O’Connor) was subjected to this terrible misogynistic culture which meant that she suffered this abuse by the officer investigating her crime.

“When she then decided to step forward and complain about this, the Met, I think because the culture of misogyny is so deep-rooted, failed to recognise that her complaint had raised issues of sex discrimination and, we say, didn’t adequately investigate it.”

A Met spokesperson said: “We recognise there is a need for real change in the Met. We are committed to creating an environment that is intolerant to those who do not uphold the high values and standards expected of us.”