‘Stripped and left topless in a cell, I was drugged and sexually assaulted by Greater Manchester Police’

Unconscious with her hands cuffed behind her back, a woman is carried into a police cell.

She is forced face-down onto a thin mattress. Police officers take off her jeans, cut off her knickers, pull a pair of oversized custody shorts over her legs, then remove her top and bra before leaving her alone and topless. All of this is captured on CCTV.

The woman in the footage is Zayna Iman, 38, who alleges that she was drugged and sexually assaulted while being held in custody by Greater Manchester Police.

“Instead of providing an unconscious female with medical attention they thought, ‘I know let’s take her clothes off instead and leave her there’,” says Zayna, sounding incredulous. “It’s just something that the police do for their own perverse kicks.”

Police broke into her home in the early hours of 5 February 2021, and arrested her after she knocked the glasses off a female officer’s face. They were following up a welfare callout over a woman high on cocaine. Over the next 40 hours or so, Zayna – who has waived her right to anonymity – would be taken to and held at a police station.

From that period, there are three hours of missing footage which GMP have so far failed to supply.

Zayna’s allegation is supported by her medical records which show evidence of sexual injuries. She has also shared her concerns with former GMP chief superintendent, Martin Harding, who has seen the available footage and the glaring inconsistencies with the custody log, and says her claims are credible.

“I believe she was raped. I believe she was raped by an officer and I believe the organisation is covering it up,” he says.

GMP has not explained why the footage is missing but says there is currently no evidence to suggest any employees have misconducted themselves or committed a criminal offence.

Zayna’s memory comes in flashbacks, which is why she asked for footage of her detention, along with custody logs, using a subject access request – which can be made to obtain personal information held by an organisation.

Sky News producer, Liz Lane, has examined the police logs and more than 40 hours of the videos.

First significant gap in footage

Our investigation found three significant gaps for which GMP failed to provide footage, the first coming shortly after Zayna was arrested at 1.53am, according to police paperwork.

A police body-worn camera captures Zayna, wearing a white top and jeans, her hands cuffed, as she is bundled into the back of a police van at 1.59am, where she says she passed out.

The journey to the police station should have taken just 10 minutes but Zayna isn’t seen again for almost another hour and a half, when she is carried into the cell, apparently unconscious at 3.26am. She can’t remember the journey and there is no bodycam footage inside the van. Separately obtained CCTV footage shows an officer getting in through a side door.

When she does reappear, Zayna is carried by three female police officers. A male officer walks in and stands close to the door of her cell before disappearing. A fourth female officer helps in what Zayna describes as a strip search, although police suggest her clothes were removed and replaced with anti-rip garments over welfare concerns.

Harding says he can see “no justification at all” for the alleged strip search and there is nothing on the custody record to explain the grounds or that it was carried out at all.

“She’s left face down, when they suspect she might have had a drugs overdose so where is the duty of care?” Harding says.

Just after 5am, lying on a blue mat and covered by a blanket, Zayna finds she has been left a top to wear. She sits with her hands to her head at 5.34am, when the police log says she underwent a medical exam. No one is seen entering the cell on the CCTV footage and she does not move from the spot the entire hour.

Second gap

The next gap in the footage comes after Zayna is seen sitting on a bench with a blanket pulled up over her knees with a drink by her side. At 9.49am, she becomes agitated, and throws the cup across the room before looking up to the camera in a state of distress, her hands pressed to her face.

Worryingly, when she next appears at 11am, Zayna is topless and clearly agitated, hitting her head with her hands and gesturing with her arms. She is behaving strangely, in a sexual manner, as she runs her right hand through her long dark hair.

Zayna remains in a state of undress for the next 26 hours. The log says nine times that she is not fit to be detained yet there she stays. At one point she stands on the bench, a blanket draped around her shoulders, pointing to what appears to be blood on the surface between her feet.

Third gap

The third missing part of the story comes after Zayna, now completely naked, looks directly at the camera immediately before it cuts out again at 1pm the next day. An hour later, still naked, she is talking up to the camera and pointing at the cell door.

She is finally given a tracksuit to put on at 8.14pm before leaving the cell a few minutes later.

After her release, Zayna went straight to hospital. Her medical report states: “Miss Iman does not have any prior history of mental disorder, she has been admitted with an acute psychotic episode which has resolved without treatment. It is highly likely that this is drug related to ‘the date rape drug’ which led to a sexual assault.” Medical records also indicate sexual injuries.

“I remember being placed in a transportation vehicle and I just felt a sense of relief, like I’m safe now,” she says, her voice full of emotion.

“I remember talking to people through a glass window and trying to explain what happened and I’m pointing here, here – places where it hurt,” she pauses, tears starting to run down her cheeks.

The Manchester mayor’s office has told Zayna that GMP have all the footage from the police cell.

Zayna is calm and measured now as she asks: “Why would you withhold footage? The very footage that could either prove or disprove my allegations you will not part with.

“Who’s got something to hide? I’m openly saying that at some point during my detention with Greater Manchester Police I was drugged and sexually assaulted, prove me wrong – give me the footage.”

Zayna is not the only woman to complain about her treatment at the same police station.

Kirsty (not her real name) believes officers were heavy-handed with her because she made complaints against the force for failing to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against her sister.

Police ‘on a power trip’

Accused of blackmail by the alleged abuser, Kirsty says she was strip searched and believes it was all about “power”. “It was police on a power trip … to shut me up, make me scared, to show we’re boss, not you,” she says. Police say her clothes were removed for welfare reasons.

In May 2023, Maria (not her real name) says she was strip-searched when she was arrested for malicious communications – accused of swearing at police during a call – after her partner had been held on suspicion of domestic violence against her and she went to the station to pick up her keys.

‘Treated like a piece of meat’

GMP say they thought she may be concealing a vape.

To authorise strip searches, police must have reasonable grounds to suspect someone is concealing something such as drugs, a weapon or crucial evidence like a mobile phone or SIM card.

But Maria says: “The only reason they did what they did was to degrade me… If I was a man, I don’t think they would’ve done it. I was treated like a piece of meat.”

A spokesperson for GMP said: “Greater Manchester Police is committed to delivering outstanding service to all those the force comes in to contact with. If service is proven to have fallen below an acceptable level, the force apologises and takes the necessary action.

“GMP is aware that these three individuals are unhappy with the service they received when they were arrested and detained – their complaints have or are being investigated by the force. Though one investigation is ongoing, there is currently no evidence to suggest any GMP employees have misconducted themselves or committed a criminal offence.

“Under the definition within the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, two of these individuals were not strip searched. Due to concerns for their welfare, their clothing was removed and replaced with anti-rip garments – this process is subject to different legislation and guidance.”

Police have not explained the missing footage.

According to the Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) code of practice, anything more than being asked to remove outer layers of clothing is classed as a strip search. GMP has been unable to tell us which different legislation they are referring to in their statement.

Call it a strip search or not, each of these three women say it was invasive and unjustified and want more accountability over how these things happen.

Additional reporting by Liz Lane, specialist producer, and Henry Vaughan, home affairs reporter.