Trigger warning: this article contains graphic accounts of domestic abuse
A vile police officer would smell the underwear of a woman he was with to check she wasn’t cheating on him as part of a catalogue of abuse and controlling behaviour towards her. A Met Police misconduct hearing heard that former DC Lindsay Blackman was physically abusive and coercive towards his victim, on one occasion pinning her down to the floor and attacking her.
The misconduct panel, held between June 2 and June 5 at Sutton Police Station, was shown photo evidence of a bruise on his victim’s arm – referred to as ‘Ms A’ – after Blackman had pinned her down and punched her twice following a row. They had attended a wake that day, and Blackman had become drunk and verbally abusive towards Ms A, who had then tried to sleep in her young son’s room. Blackman followed her, told her to return to their bedroom, and tried to remove her pyjama bottoms. When she refused to have sex with him, he shouted that he would “finish” her and “destroy” her.
She said he dragged her by the arm back to their bedroom, blocked the door to prevent her from leaving, and told her that the only way he would leave was “if the police put a bullet in his head”. She described feeling physically overpowered and that she feared he would cause her serious harm, and said she considered jumping out of the window to escape him.
Each time she tried to get up, he pulled her back. She said he pinned her to the bed and punched her arm twice. Ms A’s son, then nearly three, was woken by the noise and entered the room; Blackman told him everything was fine. Afterwards, Ms A managed to speak to her brother at around 4am, and she asked him to come quickly. When her brother arrived, she showed him the bruising on her arm. Ms A’s other brother was also called to the home, but Blackman fled before he arrived.
Ms A later attended her GP and told him she had been assaulted. When questioned by the panel, she said that she told the GP that this was the first instance of domestic assault because she was worried about social services becoming involved.
Blackman was also ‘controlling or coercive’, the misconduct panel heard, which had a massive change on Ms A. The panel heard that Blackman would often return home smelling of alcohol, which he would try to hide. His abuse of her created “isolation, anxiety and withdrawal,’ which the panel heard was due to Blackman’s ‘jealousy, controlling behaviour and heavy alcohol consumption.‘
In another instance, Blackman threw his victim onto a bed, leaving her bruised, following a row where he accused her of sleeping with her cousin. On another occasion, Blackman and his victim were in Amsterdam when Ms A could not decide what to eat. Blackman chose to pull her hair and smacked her in the face, forcing other diners to intervene.
He questioned her contact with her mum, and she stopped coming round. She added that Blackman told her not to trim her pubic hair, and when she did, he accused her of cheating and he would smell her underwear to check for signs of sexual activity.
As a result, Ms A said she couldn’t bear the thought of having a child with Blackman, and said she had aborted two pregnancies while in the relationship.
Blackman was no longer a serving police officer by the time of the hearing, but it was heard that he had committed gross misconduct that he would have been dismissed without notice were he still serving.
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