Inquiry into sexual shenanigans at Hendon

Hendon police training college is to come under new scrutiny after a trial exposed lurid details of the sexual activities of recruits and instructors.

Scotland Yard is expected to launch an internal review after a male instructor at the school was cleared of indecently assaulting two female colleagues. Married father of two Pc Steven Minney, 39, was found not guilty of five counts of indecent assault. But his trial revealed details of sex and drinking at the college.

The court heard a group of female officers kept a book naming colleagues they fantasised about, and one female instructor exposed her breasts to male staff at a Christmas party.

Minney faces disciplinary procedures into possible allegations of misconduct which could see him sacked from the force. But senior officers are also considering a wider internal inquiry into the culture at the college.

The case comes two months after police recruit Spencer Harley, 30, was jailed for six years for raping a female cadet in her digs at the college.

The court heard Harley forced himself on the recruit after a night of heavy drinking with a group of fellow cadets. It was also told of bed-hopping and binge-drinking which prompted Judge Barrington Black to condemn the college as "Liberty Hall" where "morals flew out of the window" amid a "lax and libertarian" regime.

Today a Yard source said that while Mr Minney's case referred to alleged behaviour two years ago, there were concerns the worldwide reputation of Hendon had been damaged.

Another insider at the college itself said: "We are recruiting people from society. You only have to look at what happens at places like Ibiza and you get that sort of behaviour at Hendon. Some of the girls come in and it's the first time away from Mum and Dad."

In the past female recruits at the college launched a so-called "Rainbow Club" - nicknamed after the different coloured epaulets worn by squads of trainees. The women would compete to see how many could "complete the rainbow". They were believed to have worked out a points system for different officers, depending on how senior they were - with added points for traffic wardens.

At Minney's trial, which collapsed yesterday because of undisclosed new evidence, the jury heard how his two accusers would openly read an adult magazine featuring sex toys in the college staffroom.

Minney's lawyers claimed the two women were hostile towards him because he did not join in their banter and disapproved of their behaviour. They had accused him of carrying out a "predatory" campaign of sex assaults on them over nine months.

Details of the new evidence were not made public in case they jeopardised Minney's disciplinary case.

A record number of recruits are now passing through Hendon, and the force has recently reached a record 30,000 officers.

The college had already come under the spotlight over sex allegations. Earlier this month Detective Sergeant Georgina Shanley, 42, won £200,000 compensation for four years of "appalling" sexual harassment at the school in which she was humiliated and insulted by male colleagues.

Last year, it emerged that four recruits at Hendon were being investigated for alleged racism and sexual harassment. The news came after a BBC documentary exposed trainees from Greater Manchester and North Wales as racists.

In 1999, five instructors transferred to other police jobs after being caught sneaking into female recruits' rooms. They had broken rules banning them from socialising with trainees.

The incident took place hours before a passing-out parade attended by then-Met Commissioner Sir Paul Condon. It followed a drink-fuelled dinnerdance attended by trainees and instructors on the previous night.