A serving Metropolitan police officer has been found guilty of sex offences and kidnap, after being accused of child rape before he joined the force.

Cliff Mitchell, 24, was found guilty of one count of kidnap and breach of a non-molestation order, ten counts of rape, and three counts of rape of a child under the age of 13. Mitchell was only sacked from the Met Police in 2023.

A child reported that she had been raped by Mitchell on a number of occasions between 2014 and 2017. An investigation was carried out, and in August 2019 the decision was that no further action would be taken. Mitchell began his training with the Met in 2021, and the force confirmed that they were aware of the then ‘unproven allegations’ against Mitchell during their recruitment vetting process.

Mitchell only faced prosecution in 2023 following his arrest for the rape and kidnap of a different woman. Mitchell’s 2023 arrest in September followed a 999 call from a member of the public, who saw the victim running through a street in London, shouting: ‘He’s going to kill me, he held a knife up to me, I’m so scared’. Mitchell was arrested soon after, and evidence seized from his car and an address linked to him. The victim reported that when Mitchell attacked her repeatedly between 2020 and 2023, he silenced her using his status as a police officer, claiming that no one would believe that he abused her.

In response to the incident, Stuart Cundy, the Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner commented: ‘This brazen abuse of power makes Mitchell’s actions all the more deplorable’. He also praised the victims by saying, ‘it is down to their courage that he has been convicted and faces a significant custodial sentence’.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has called for ‘wholesale changes to vetting procedures.’

She said, ‘the fact that the police did not know Mitchell had anon-molestation order out against him whilst he was a serving officer shows total system failure in tackling violence against women and girls… There are now extremely serious questions as to how Mitchell was able to obtain a job in the Met, having been previously investigated for rape. That should never have been allowed to happen and must never be allowed to happen again.’