Amber Gill has launched a scathing attack on those responsible for the degrading strip search of a 15-year-old black schoolgirl.
The horrifying case has recently come to light, as it emerged the girl, who was on her period, was pulled out of an exam and strip searched by three police officers without another adult present.
The incident occurred in 2020, and the matter was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in May last year, prompting a review into the case by the safeguarding watchdog.
The girl, known only as Child Q, was wrongly accused of carrying cannabis by her teachers at a Hackney high school, and was forced to spread her legs, use her hands to spread her buttocks, and cough.
The case has prompted outcry, and former Love Island winner Amber, who has been an advocate for women's issues, was the latest celebrity to speak out on the abhorrent incident.
“Officers AND Teachers need to be sacked. Every single person involved needs to be sacked immediately,” she fired in a post on Twitter.
“I can't even begin to imagine how the poor girl is coping after this,” Amber added.
“A strip search?!” she continued. “That should be a sexual assault case at the very very least.”
When one suggested the girl should have been strip searched, Amber leapt to the teenager’s defence, and issued a fiery reply.
“Shut up Old man! She is a 15 year old in a school. Were you there?” she wrote.
She then furiously called out another follower, who said that it was “understandable why the police may think she is in possession of drugs”.
“There is a massive issue... As a school you contact a parent or guardian you don't call the police as the first step,” she replied.
“Stricter searching is still not asking a child to spread her legs and cough whilst on her period sorry!” Amber angrily added.
Loose Women co-host Judi Love also waded into the furore, as she addressed the “blatant racism” towards black women and girls.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that theirs still people that’s so ignorant to the blatant existence of racism & the treatment of black people, especially women & girls… We see story after story & somehow you who never experienced racism will say ‘it’s not racism’!! #blackgirlsmatter,” the 41-year-old tweeted.
Scotland Yard have since apologised for the search, and said it “should never have happened”, with three Metropolitan Police constables currently under investigation for misconduct.
Family members have described the girl as going from a “happy-go-lucky girl to a timid recluse that hardly speaks” following the traumatic incident.
