Former Acting Commissioner of the Metropolitan  Police, Sir Stephen House, stated that “the bulk of rape complaints were regretful sex”, it is alleged. The case has currently been referred to the Independent Office of Police Complaints.

The accusation was made on Channel 4 News by Professor Betsy Stanko, who is currently an advisor on Operation Soteria, an investigation into police response to rape cases, which found that some officers “displayed a culture of disbelieving victims”. Stanko claims that the comments were made in January 2022, when House was a deputy commissioner.

House denies the accusations, claiming that the phrase “regretful sex” is “abhorrent”: “these are not words I have ever used… I find this characterisation of me to be deeply upsetting, and colleagues who know me know how untrue it is.”

House was briefly acting commissioner of the Met, between April and July 2022, following the resignation of Cressida Dick. Prior to this, he had served as Chief Constable of Police Scotland for three years, before resigning early following a series of controversies.

This is the latest accusation of institutional sexism to be levelled at the Met. It follows the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which connected the 1980s culture of “widespread misogyny…at the highest levels” with the contemporary crimes of the rapists Wayne Couzens and David Carrick. The Force was placed in special measures last year, an unprecedented decision, resulting from a range of scandals, including a culture of bullying, and exposés of racism among the officers