Yard diversity chief’s son faces trial over sex attacks on Tube: 26-year-old in court after ‘offences’ on commuter trains

The son of Scotland Yard’s equality and diversity chief has been charged with sexually assaulting women on London Underground commuter trains.

Karl Josephs-Milani, whose mother Denise Milani is the £75,000-a-year head of the Metropolitan Police’s Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate, is accused of carrying out the attacks earlier this year.

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court last week to deny two charges of sexual assault and will be tried at crown court.

The offences – investigated by British Transport Police – are alleged to have occurred on Metropolitan Line trains running between Uxbridge and Baker Street.

Ms Milani, 52, joined the Met ten years ago and is responsible for implementing the force’s policies on racial, religious, sexual and age equality.

She is listed on the electoral roll as living at the same address as her 26-year-old son in Neasden, North-West London.

One of the specific responsibilities of Ms Milani’s department is issues relating to women’s safety. The former teacher – whose parents migrated to Britain from the West Indies – has been described as a protegee of former Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.

As one of the Met’s most senior managers, with a staff of more than 60, her job involves ‘building the trust, confidence and satisfaction of those we serve and those with whom we work’.

Her directorate’s responsibilities are divided into six strands including age, disability, gender, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender), race and faith.

Last year she caused controversy by issuing a circular to officers, asking them to mark the first Gipsy Roma Traveller History Month by ‘celebrating’ the community’s contribution to London’s cultural diversity.

At the time Roma migrants from Eastern Europe were suspected of being involved in prostitution and begging rings and a police unit had been set up to combat their activities.

Eight years ago, when Ms Milani was in a more junior position as head of the Met’s Positive Action team, she annoyed the Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah by trying to use his work for a campaign to recruit black police officers.

Mr Zephaniah was asked if an excerpt from one of his poems could be reproduced on a poster.

He refused, saying he was fed up with being stopped by the police simply because he was black. Ms Milani admitted that it had been her idea because the poem – The London Breed – ‘conveyed exactly the message we are trying to get across about London’s diversity and the type of organisation we are trying to create’.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman declined to comment, saying: ‘This is a matter for the British Transport Police.’