‘This can’t happen to anyone else ever again’: Call for ban on strip searching of children

A human rights expert called for a ban on strip searching of children in Wales, with black children disproportionately subject to the traumatising and degrading practice.

Rhian Croke, of the Children’s Legal Centre Wales, warned strip search is a violation of children’s rights as she called for less invasive alternatives such as body scanners.

Dr Croke said: “Instead of traumatising and degrading children including those who may be involved in offending… children should be treated as children first with dignity and respect.

“In Wales, strip search is contrary to the nation’s commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Wales-only legislation that promotes children’s rights….

“Wales should take the lead on ending the practice of strip search and instead invest in alternative technologies, so children have their rights protected.”

‘Layers of trauma’

She stressed: “Children in contact with the police may have already experienced layers upon layers of trauma, to then inflict a strip search on a child is completely inappropriate.”

Dr Croke, who holds a PhD in law, pointed out that in most cases nothing illegal was found during searches conducted in custody, “yet the degrading practice continues”.

In a briefing for Senedd Members, jointly prepared with fellow campaigner Saqib Deshmukh, she expressed concerns about “totally inadequate” monitoring of incidents of strip searches.

Warning of a failure in transparency and accountability, Dr Croke said freedom of information (FoI) requests revealed discrepancies and contradictions in the data reported by police.

A total of 5,428 strip searches of children were undertaken in Wales in two years to 2023, mostly for drugs and weapons, with six cases involving under 13s, according to one review. 85 involved a more thorough or intimate search beyond removing a coat, jacket or gloves.

‘Obsfuscation’

South Wales Police was among the forces with the highest rate in Wales and England, with research suggesting black children are four times more likely to be strip searched.

In a letter revealed under FoI, Jason Davies, the deputy chief constable, acknowledged disproportionality in the number of ethnic minority children being strip searched.

But South Wales, Dyfed Powys, and Gwent Police refused to provide any data on child strip search cross-referenced by ethnicity in response to FoI requests, according to the briefing.

The researchers wrote: “We question whether the struggle to access data across various agencies and governments is a question of competence.

“It is unclear if it is a failure to achieve basic professional standards of transparency or if it is an act of obfuscation – a failure to share clear and intelligible data to avoid legal challenge.”

‘Never again’

Dr Croke raised concerns about the review showing North Wales Police were only able to confirm the presence of an appropriate adult in about half to two-thirds of searches.

“This report has taken over a year to come into the public domain,” she wrote. “It is a report of significant public interest that reveals a lack of compliance with existing legislation, a failure to uphold children’s rights and raises critical questions.”

Concerns first came to light in 2020 when a schoolgirl in London was wrongly accused of having drugs and strip searched while on her period without an appropriate adult present.

During a legal case, the girl said: “I can’t go a single day without wanting to scream, shout, cry or just give up. I don’t know if I’m going to feel normal again. But I do know this can’t happen to anyone else, ever again.”

In another case involving the Met police, an autistic girl, 15, was handcuffed, pinned down and searched, with her underwear cut off in front of male officers, after 20 hours in custody. She was so traumatised she tried to kill herself within weeks, her mother said.

‘Jagged edge’

Senedd Members discussed the issue during a social justice committee meeting on May 12.

Plaid Cymru’s Sioned Williams said: “The very thorough inquiry raises major questions about what’s happening in Wales in terms of the fact that we say that we respect children’s rights. I do think we should write as a committee stating that we want to see this come to an end.”

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds, a social worker for 27 years, questioned whether the Welsh Government would have the powers to ban strip searching of children.

She said: “It is about rights and it is about a complete injustice in that, sadly, we know that most children who are strip searched are those from black and minority ethnic groups.”

With most of the justice system non-devolved, Labour’s Jenny Rathbone, who chairs the committee, said: “I fear we don’t have the powers, I’m sure it sits on the ‘jagged edge’.”

In 2024, an independent commission recommended devolving more powers to Wales, beginning with youth justice, probation and policing.

Lord Timpson – the UK minister responsible for prisons, probation and reducing reoffending – is scheduled to give evidence at the committee’s next meeting on May 19.