Dame Cressida Dick has resigned as head of the Metropolitan Police, mere hours after a bullish defence saying she was going nowhere.
The London police force has faced a number of scandals and difficult moments under Dick's tenure, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was "not satisfied" the 61-year-old was the person to take it forward amid a loss in confidence in the force.
Public fury was raised over the Sarah Everard case, in which a young woman was raped and murdered by serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens, and WhatsApp texting scandals that showed both misogynistic and racist attitudes from officers serving on the force.
The Mayor said: "It’s clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police."
Dick said it was with "huge sadness" that she is stepping back after taking the role in 2017.
The first openly gay commissioner of the Met will stay on in the role until a new head is found.
Who is Cressida Dick's partner?
Very little is known about Dick's private life, but her partner is a now retired Met inspector known only as Helen.
Dick told the Daily Mail in 2018: "She was a duty inspector in a busy London borough. It was a big, demanding job — she loved it and I am biased, of course, but she was really good at it."
In what was a landmark moment, Dick became not just the first woman in the Met's top job, but the force's first openly gay serving commissioner in 2017.
Speaking on Desert Island Discs in 2019, Dick claimed that one of the "least interesting" things about her is her sexuality.
She said: "Sometimes people say to me that they think it’s important, but to be honest, for me, I think it’s one of the least interesting things about me."
Despite this, many in the LGBTQIA+ community saw her appointment as a significant step on the road for promoting equality of people from all backgrounds, genders and sexualities.
Why has Cressida Dick resigned?
The Met has faced repeated difficulties, culminating in a concerning perception of serving officers.
Among other scandals, the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, and the subsequently controversial dealing of a vigil held in Clapham marking her death, were met with public outcry.
Members of the public voiced their concerns about serving police officers - not helped by the most recent scandal of her tenure, in which an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct found vile misogynistic messages on WhatsApp and Facebook messenger groups held by Charing Cross police officers.
Chats saw them joke about "slapping your missus about" and calling women "daft c**ts" for getting murdered by their partners.
The Met was also accused of a 'stitch-up' - which it denied - regarding the handling of the Number 10 Partygate scandals after it emerged a senior officer overseeing complaints about Partygate is the brother of Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
Dame Cressida acknowledged the Met's failings in her statement, which said: "The murder of Sarah Everard and many other awful cases recently have, I know, damaged confidence in this fantastic police service.
"There is much to do – and I know that the Met has turned its full attention to rebuilding public trust and confidence."
