'Children first, not the paedophile': Met chief Sir Mark Rowley savages courts over 'unfathomable' bail decisions as 700 offenders prepare to be released early

From the Newshound archive · first published 25 September 2026.

London's Victims' Commissioner Andrea Simon said victims had been "grossly failed" after Zafer Dogan, 32, was granted bail three times by courts — returning him to his Enfield flat overlooking the very playground he had targeted — despite objections from police and prosecutors. Simon demanded a multi-agency review, while Sir Mark Rowley attended the sentencing in person and delivered an extraordinary public broadside against the justice system on the steps of Wood Green Crown Court. The criticism arrives as 700 offenders are set to be released early under Labour's prison release scheme in the coming days, and crown court backlogs have simultaneously reached a record 80,829 open cases.

Dogan, who used AI software to 'nudify' more than 5,000 covertly taken images of women and girls as young as seven, was jailed for just two years and four months.

One victim's family was driven into temporary accommodation because the courts repeatedly sent Dogan back to his flat above the playground where he had preyed on children.

The Government responded that bail is permissible only where 'necessary and proportionate' — a position Rowley dismissed as inadequate given that officers are being left 'hamstrung' daily.