Zayna Iman: Woman allegedly raped in police custody says ‘sex offenders are still serving as officers’
Zayna Iman is demanding answers, six weeks after claiming on Sky News she was raped in a police cell in Manchester.
Police statements released since the report was broadcast appear to contradict things officers have said previously, and crucial footage of Zayna’s time in custody remains missing.
A Sky News report in July featured three women, including Zayna, who claimed they’d been unnecessarily strip-searched by officers. Zayna alleges she was also drugged and raped in custody in February 2021.
Zayna Iman is ‘strip searched’
Exercising her right to see the footage of her time in the cell she discovered that two hours of the cell footage were missing.
There are conflicting accounts from the police about what’s happened to it.
Investigation into GMP launched
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‘I’ve been gaslit’, says alleged sex assault victim
Since our investigation was broadcast in July, an inquiry under Dame Vera Baird has been launched into Greater Manchester Police (GMP), and Zayna’s case has been referred back to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Last week she met Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham.
But outside the mayor’s office, Zayna described the whole thing as “lip service”, saying she wouldn’t be happy until police officers are interviewed and held to account.
She said: “I’m not happy with the responses. Why do these people not understand that sex offenders are still serving.”
Zayna Iman ‘doesn’t want to believe her memories’. Pic: Andy Portch
‘Unbelievable memories and bad dreams’
At times emotion overwhelmed her as she explained that each time she recounts her story it is stirring the memories, the flashbacks, the bad dreams that she says still haunt her from the 48 hours in Pendleton police station – most of which she spent naked in a cell.
She said: “I don’t talk about my memories, and the reason I don’t talk about my memories – because I don’t want to believe them myself. It would be far easier if Greater Manchester’s narrative of me was right.”
GMP say there’s currently no evidence of criminality or misconduct by officers.
CCTV footage of Zayna Iman in police cell
Contradictions over corrupt cell CCTV
Zayna has already spent more than two years asking for all the footage relating to her detainment but only after our report was broadcast in July did GMP explain in a public statement that Zayna’s footage was stored on discs but “one disc corrupted” and the “parent footage on the servers had been overwritten.”
They are now trying to forensically recover the missing two hours.
Zayna has never been given this information.
“They were able to tell the media that they corrupted my disc, but you can’t tell me?” she says in disbelief.
In fact, she was told quite the opposite.
Two years ago, the mayor’s office confirmed in a letter to Zayna that GMP said they’d reviewed all the custody footage and “did not find evidence to support the allegations.” There was no mention of corrupted footage.
GMP repeated the claim in a letter to Zayna last year, saying “urgent actions” were taken which included “reviewing the CCTV footage from the cell you were detained in.”
How could they do that if some of it was corrupted?
We asked Manchester’s Deputy Mayor in charge of Policing, Kate Green, who was also baffled by the inconsistency.
Scarlett said police ‘know full well that they’re in charge’. Pic: Andy Portch
She said: “You are quite right that initially the deputy mayor’s office was assured that the whole footage was available, and it has turned out subsequently that that is not the case – and I think we can expect Dame Vera in the course of her inquiries to comment on how footage is handled.”
Strip-searched at 14
Since our report Sky News has spoken to more women impacted by police strip searches, including Scarlett, 18, who says she was “humiliated” during a strip search at the aged of 14 in Greater Manchester.
Scarlett, who was arrested but not charged with any crime, claims the search was conducted because they thought she might have concealed an e-cigarette.
She told Sky News: “They just said take your clothes off – keep your knickers and bra on. They were searching in my toes, in my waistline, the waistband of my knickers – making me pull my bra up to see if anything dropped out.
Police custody log
“I was young. I didn’t want anyone to see my body at that age, especially strangers.”
Scarlett said she wasn’t offered the attendance of a responsible adult – which she is entitled to under the regulations governing police strip searches of minors, and although female officers conducted the search, she said there was a glass door that a male officer on the desk could see through.
Read more:
Drugged and sexually assaulted in a cell
Minister to raise Zayna Iman case
Women’s safety in GMP custody to be investigated
Scarlett said: “There’s nothing you can do. They’re the police. Who do you go to when the police are doing that to you?
“They know full well that they’re in charge – the way I see it, once you go through them custody doors, you know as soon as the van pulls in and those shutters go down, the tension – you can just feel it – it changes completely.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Allen said: “When in police care in custody, people can and should expect to be treated with care and dignity, and within approved guidelines.
“Unfortunately this report does not sound like these values were reflected in the young woman’s experience.
“I thank Sky News for bringing this concerning complaint to GMP’s attention.
“The young woman has not previously made the Professional Standards Branch aware of this issue and so we have made contact with her to ensure her complaint is formally recorded so it can be appropriately progressed.”
Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said: “Greater Manchester Police welcomes the Independent Office for Police Conduct and Dame Vera Baird’s investigation of Miss Iman’s case and reviewing the force’s custody processes and procedures.
“It is really important that any answers now come from those appointed and entrusted to have independent oversight.
“Whilst GMP is fully supporting their investigation and review, the force will not be commenting publicly until their findings have been published and we have engaged directly with those affected.”
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Strip searching: What are your rights?
Stripped ‘without justification’
While police have the right to search for contraband items such as weapons or drugs, the three women we featured in our original report said they were stripped without justification – one of them completely naked and asked to spread her legs because, again, police were looking for a vape.
More worrying stories are emerging. Scarlett’s is one of several new cases Sky News is passing on to the inquiry.
Abuse victims’ charity, the Maggie Oliver Foundation, have told us they are taking five other women to meet the inquiry chair this week.
Ms Oliver, a former GMP whistle-blower, said: “We are happy that actual survivors are being heard in person, rather than filtered through an internal complaints procedure which is unfit for purpose.
“We would like to see this review widened from looking at just a few individual cases where these specific victims have been failed to look at the whole complaints system.
“We believe complaints must be taken out of GMP control and taken control of by truly independent outsiders whose aim isn’t to protect the organisation but rather to improve a broken system and restore public trust.”
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
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A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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