One of Britain’s most senior police officers is being investigated over allegations he described the “bulk” of rape complaints as “regretful sex”.
Sir Stephen House, a former deputy commissioner and acting commissioner of the Metropolitan police, was referred to the independent police watchdog over the accusation.
His alleged comments were made public by Home Office adviser Prof Betsy Stanko, who conducted a review into the number of rape cases making it to court.
House denied the claims, first reported by Channel 4 News, and said he finds the term regretful sex “abhorrent”.
In the latest institutional sexism row to hit the Met, Stanko accused House of making the comments to her at a Scotland Yard meeting in January 2022, when he was deputy commissioner.
“It felt as if [House] was trying to minimise what the problem was, not taking it seriously,” she told Channel 4 News. “He used terms to describe – or a term to describe – what he thought the bulk of the rape complaints were, which was the term ‘regretful sex’.
“The only way I understand the term regretful sex – and it was said by officers elsewhere, in the other forces that we visited and researched – it is something about the victim. Again, the victim is mistaken.”
Stanko added: “That that fault line of forcible sex, which is rape, was not crossed because it must have been confusion. The problem was about confusion, not about the facts or the evidence that could have been collected if one was trying to investigate a rape.”
The current deputy commissioner, Lynne Owens, confirmed the force was aware of “an allegation that the comments were made by a senior officer” and had referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
The Home Office confirmed Suella Braverman, the home secretary, backed the decision for House to step back from a review into policing productivity.
A spokesperson said: “Now it has been referred to the IOPC, the home secretary has agreed with National Police Chiefs’ Council chair, Martin Hewitt, that Sir Stephen House steps back from the review into the productivity of policing.”
House told Channel 4 News in a statement that he “categorically denied” using the phrase “regretful sex”. He said: “I have dedicated over four decades of public service to protecting the public from predatory offenders.
“I categorically deny using the phrase ‘regretful sex’. These are not words I have ever used in relation to rape or sexual assault and the reason I am so certain that I did not say this is because I simply do not believe it. I find the phrase abhorrent.
“I find this characterisation of me to be deeply upsetting and colleagues who know me know how untrue it is.”
Channel 4 News reported that, of two other people who were understood to have attended the meeting, one said he “did not recall” the comments while the other confirmed Stanko’s account.
The allegations come days after a public inquiry heard undercover Met officers deceived women into sexual relationships because of a culture of “endemic” sexism.
