The Metropolitan police have denied racial bias had an impact on their investigation into the disappearance of the student nurse Owami Davies, who was found almost seven weeks after she went missing.
The force has come under fire over its handling of the case after it emerged that officers came into contact with the 24-year-old on the day she was reported missing.
Officers also faced criticism after issuing pictures of a different black woman in an early appeal for information about the King’s College London student.
Davies, from Grays, Essex, was found “fit and well” in Hampshire on Tuesday after a member of the public spotted her. Her mother, Nicol, thanked the media, public and police for helping locate Davies, posting on Twitter: “I will never forget the love showered over my family during our time of despair.”
The former Met chief superintendent Dal Babu was among those who questioned the police’s handling of the case. In an opinion piece for the Guardian he wrote: “Once again, a black family has had to suffer with … constant questions about whether the situation would be taken more seriously were they white.”
But the Met issued a robust defence of its investigation and rejected accusations of racial bias.
The Met commander, Paul Brogden, said in a statement posted on Twitter: “Any commentary – including from former police officers – that suggests our response to Owami Davies’ disappearance was insufficient or motivated by racial bias is unsubstantiated and based on speculation. It does a disservice to the tireless work, over many weeks, of the officers involved.”
He added: “This was the biggest missing person investigation conducted by the Met this year and among the biggest in recent years. It involved a significant number of officers, including specialist detectives with expertise in complex cases.
“We are very pleased that their extraordinary efforts, with the assistance of the public and the press who shared our appeals, resulted in Owami being found.”
Brogden, who announced a review of the force’s handling of the case on Tuesday, added: “We always review significant cases to learn and improve, and we are doing so in this instance alongside our colleagues from Essex police. We will be transparent about any lessons that emerge.”
Davies’ family reported her missing to Essex police on 6 July. She had left the family home two days earlier, and was seen on CCTV at 12.30pm on 7 July in London Road, Croydon, south London. The case was transferred to the Met on 23 July.
It emerged that Met police officers encountered Davies sleeping in the doorway of a house in Croydon on the day she was reported missing, but the force said she had not been marked as a missing person on the police database at the time.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct was considering whether to investigate officers over the contact but it announced on Wednesday that the case no longer met the criteria for a referral as Davies had been found well.
On Thursday, Davies’s mother said she “broke” when she could not find her daughter. “I cried and you cried with me. I pleaded and begged for your help and you showed up in thousands,” she said. “Together we indeed searched far and beyond, Owami was found alive, safe and in a very safe place.”
