A Metropolitan Police officer has recalled the “horrifying” and “demeaning” moment a senior male colleague allegedly grabbed her face and kissed her while on duty – behaviour she said she feared was “becoming a pattern”.
In a misconduct hearing on Monday, the female officer claimed Sergeant George Panayi approached her while she sat in the driver’s seat of a police van on 21 December 2019, and began to show her images on women on his phone, saying: “I’m dating them because you are not available.”
He is then alleged to have grabbed her face “in a headlock” with both hands – in such a way that she “couldn’t move” – and kissed her on the cheek.
The woman said she and a fellow officer in the van “looked at each other in shock”, adding that she had felt “like a fish of out water” and “did not know how to react”.
It was “offensive, demeaning, horrifying”, she said.
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The female officer told the hearing that Sgt Panayi – who is part of the Met’s East Area Command Unit – also pinched her cheek in February 2020, when she was in the middle of restraining a mental health patient who was trying to self-harm.
Calling the alleged incident “completely unprofessional”, she said: “He didn’t do it to my other colleague. He did it to me.”
The police officer also told the hearing about the third allegation, said to have taken place six days later, on 9 February, in which she says Sgt Panayi opened the door to a lavatory knowing that she was inside.
After opening the female lavatory door – after she had entered, and before she had the chance to lock it – Sgt Panayi “just laughed at me and walked off”, the officer alleged.
She said she had reported the allegations as they had not been one-offs, adding: “This was becoming a pattern. My fear was that other things were going to happen.”
The officer said she had faced stigma after making the allegations, adding that some officers were supportive while others were not.
The officer who witnessed the alleged kiss in the police van also gave evidence at the hearing on Monday, describing it as a “peck on the cheek”, adding: “I didn’t really think anything of it.”
Pressed for her views on whether it is appropriate for colleagues to kiss, she said: “I mean, it’s probably not something that should happen in a professional capacity.”
She said she had not seen a sergeant kiss a constable before.
Sgt Panayi is accused of breaching Scotland Yard’s standards of professional behaviour in respect of authority, respect and courtesy. It is alleged that his conduct, if proven, amounts to gross misconduct and would justify his sacking.
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Julian Walters, counsel for the Met, said it is “expressly stated” that police should show courtesy and respect towards both the public and their colleagues.
He said the allegations against Sgt Panayi involve “deliberate” acts meant to “interfere with the physical integrity” of the female officer, adding: “We say that those acts are, objectively measured by contemporary prevailing standards, disrespectful and discourteous.”
It is “manifestly obvious” that, when an “unsolicited, uninvited kiss” is placed on the cheek of a colleague, it is by its very nature disrespectful and discourteous, Mr Walters said.
The difference in rank magnifies the lack of courtesy, Mr Walters said, arguing that the female officer “cannot answer back in kind” and was the victim of an “abuse of power”.
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The hearing is set to continue this week.
Additional reporting by PA