EXCLUSIVE: Met Police officers accused and found guilty of serious misconduct, including sexual offences have identities withheld

SEVERAL Met Police officers accused and found guilty of serious misconduct, including sexual offences and drug or alcohol abuse have had their identities withheld.

Officers' names are usually published in the interest of transparency but independent legally qualified chairs who oversee misconduct panels can withhold them on certain grounds.

The Sunday Express found several recent cases concerning serious offences where names were withheld, including three officers who had been convicted of crimes so their names should already be on public record and available to the public.

These included an officer who was convicted this year of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl when aged 15 in 1996.

He was dismissed, but his name withheld. The same happened in the case of an officer convicted of drink driving.

Of those not criminally prosecuted an LGBT liaison officer who groomed a vulnerable teen on Grindr for sex also had his name withheld.

Other cases where officers were not named involved allegations of domestic abuse and coercive control and sending inappropriate images to a colleague.

A force spokesman said names could be withheld for a number of reasons, including to safeguard the mental health of an officer, to protect witnesses or not to prejudice ongoing criminal proceedings.