A FURTHER eight referrals involving “inhumane” strip searches of children have been made to the police watchdog, the Metropolitan Police said today.

The voluntary referrals relate to separate incidents between December 2019 and March 2022, where children aged 14 to 17 were strip searched by officers in custody or subject to “more intimate searches outside custody,” according to the force.

It comes after three cases were referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Two teenage girls, known as Child Q and Olivia, were strip searched by officers while they were menstruating.

A third case, involving a child known only as Child A, was confirmed to be under investigation by the Met last month.

An IOPC spokesman said: “We have received eight further complaint referrals from the force.

“We have determined that two of these referrals were suitable for local investigation by the MPS, which was finalising its own investigations into them at the point of referral.

“We are continuing to assess the available information to determine what further action may be required in respect of the others.”

Child Q was strip searched by female officers in 2020 after she was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at her east London school.

The search took place without another adult present and in the knowledge that she was menstruating, a safeguarding report found.

The local child safeguarding practice review, conducted by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership, concluded the strip search should never have happened, and racism “was likely to have been an influencing factor.”

The second anonymous teenager was arrested and stripped searched by six officers in front of male officers.

Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott told the Star: “I have always suspected that Child Q was not an isolated incident.

“We also know that the police records on strip searches are an underestimate because many of these strip searches take place while the child is in custody and are not recorded.

“I am glad that these further strip searches are being investigated. We need to get all the facts on this disturbing practice.”

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts UK co-founder Zita Holbourne said: “It is horrifying to hear of these other cases and my concern is how many more are there we don’t know about.

“This situation is both unlawful and inhumane and even worse that those supposed to uphold the law are doing it.

“Violating their dignity like this cannot go unpunished, the officers responsible must receive suitable punishment for their actions.”