Police admit to 'illegally' searching black women and make shocking sexual confessions in bodycam footage
A woman who was arrested attending a peaceful protest and had her body camera confiscated got back footage of police admitting they 'illegally' search black women.
36-year-old Gemma Barnes attended a protest outside Bethel Street Police Station in Norwich on 14 January, 2023, after a man wasn't charged over allegations he'd killed a pigeon.
Protesters went into the police station to deliver a petition calling for the man to be charged and a few minutes later they were 'pushed out', with Gemma saying she was arrested by an officer who 'pushed her into a busy road'.
Officers confiscated her body camera and appeared not to realise it was still recording, with Gemma's camera getting four hours of footage.
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The bodycam recordings of the unsuspecting officers allegedly recorded them saying they'd illegally stop and search black women, pay for sex and they also called Gemma a 'f**king waste of space' and a 'dirty critter'.
In the recordings a male police officer is heard talking about going to a massage parlour with a 'happy ending', saying: "I got there, what I find a bit strange is that each room has like a card reader in it."
Another officer asks him where the parlour is, to which the first officer says 'the Chinese well-being place, it does happy endings'.
The conversation continued until an officer shouted 'did you get a wank', and the first officer replied 'pretty much, yeah'.
Another officer later said: "Honestly though, I'm going back outside of work hours."
'Illegally' searching Black women
Also in the footage a female officer is heard saying: "I illegally stop, search IC3 females and then I arrest them and it becomes a big deal."
IC3 is an identity code in law enforcement which indicates someone is black.
Gemma's camera footage picked up a conversation about her too while police were watching her arrest, as a female officer said she 'asked for it'.
They also discussed a previous protest the woman attended and implied they tried to get Gemma on false charges.
An officer said: "The case they keep talking to me about, essentially, she was committing public order offences.
"There were three separate Section 4A of the Public Order Act where she got arrested, and then she got arrested for obstructing police.
"However, they wanted to try to put a CBO on her, so they looked through past body-worn footage and decided to generate a common assault six weeks after the incident and push it through, and on the back of the common assault try to stick a CBO on her.
"But the body-worn footage that they chose was of a guy who had just tried to drive his truck into her, and he got done for dangerous driving.
"So he got out, and she pushes him, but that's self-defence. Essentially, all of that got thrown out, and the prosecutor was like, 'What are you trying to do? She will get herself in trouble'."
Gemma said the attempt to generate a common assault charge came six months, not six weeks after the incident.
A charge of public nuisance was dropped against her, and she was acquitted in court for a Section 5 public order offence.
"Gleeful about the violence they have used"
She's now suing Norfolk Police for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, and trespass to goods.
She said: "I was outraged; to say it was unprofessional is an understatement. It is a damning indictment of the environment in policing - it was appalling.
"I was called a f**king waste of space, called a dirty critter and that I should have been left outside in the rain to wash."
It was 11 months after her arrest that she got her camera back and expected the footage to be wiped, but she found hours more than she expected.
"As I continued to watch the footage, I realised the magnitude of what they were saying," Gemma said.
"The transphobia, racism, brothels, picking me up with false charges."
Gemma's lawyer John Hagan, Partner of DPP Law Solicitors, said: "This footage shows us what goes on inside many Police Officer’s heads and behind the closed doors of the Police Station, and it is not a pretty sight.
"Officers can be heard describing my client as a f**king waste of space, discussing other officers attempting to generate an unsubstantiated charge against her and describing a transgender person as a “thing.”
"They are gleeful about the violence they have used against Gemma, a peaceful protestor, and frankly the whole atmosphere is akin to a school in which the teachers are absent and the bullies have taken over.
"What is perhaps equally shocking to what is revealed on the 'candid camera' with which the Police recorded their sordid comments, is their behaviour in the full light of day.
"The so-called Independent Office of Police Conduct has, as usual, shown itself to be anything but independent in its assessment of my client’s case, and she will now be using the full force of the civil law to hold both Norfolk Constabulary and the IOPC to account for their egregious actions.”
A Norfolk Constabulary spokeswoman said: “We can confirm this footage was reviewed as part of a conduct investigation which started in January 2024 and considered 17 separate aspects as part of a single complaint.
"Following that investigation, a number of matters were addressed through the appropriate misconduct processes. We also reviewed arrest and stop and search records for the officers involved and found no wider evidence of discriminatory behaviour.
"This investigation is currently subject to a complainant’s right to review with the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
"Part of the footage currently being circulated on social media has not previously been provided to the Constabulary in its current format and we are therefore further reviewing this. As a matter of fairness, we will not comment further on this while that assessment is ongoing.
"We know that some of the content currently being shared will undermine public confidence in policing. People rightly expect high standards from police officers and staff, and some of the content being circulated falls short of what the public would expect to hear.
"We are carefully reviewing the new material and will take any action that is supported by evidence.”
Joe Harker