London's Met Police - Homophobic?

A lesbian trainee police officer who killed herself accused the Met police of being homophobic in her suicide note.


Lara Goldie, 28, had hanged herself in her Hackney flat and was found last  week by a neighbour.   She was a trainee police officer and in her suicide note she partly blamed the homophobia leveled at her both at the police training college and the station where she was based.    




Goldie  graduated from the Hendon police college in April of this year  and was working in Haringey, London, as a trainee PC.    A four page suicide note  was found near her body in which she referred to personal problems but it also contained a paragraph about Hendon and Haringey where she said colleagues were prejudiced against her.


Colleagues at the Haringey police station all deny being homophobic and a Metropolitan Police  source told a national newspaper, that Goldie had not made any official complaints about fellow officers.  A spokesman said: "Her death is not being treated as suspicious. It is tragic that a young officer has died.  At this sad and difficult time, our thoughts are with her family, friends and colleagues."


A Hendon insider told reporters  "There is a palpable sense of shock that anyone has been accused of homophobia.  Once the police had a reputation for being homophobic and racist. But we have moved on a lot since then."


The Metropolitan Police have launch an inquiry into her death, in case of any wrong doing by staff at Hendon or at the station in Haringey.


Jason Shaw.
GayAgenda.com's UK Correspondent.






© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw