A philosophy lecturer is claiming to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after she was strip-searched by police in a case which could end an officer's career.

Konstancja Duff was arrested after she intervened in the arrest of a boy aged, 15, in London, attempting to hand him a card listing his legal rights and telling him to give a 'no comment' interview.

The teenager was later found to have a six inch knife in his sock in May 2013.

Sergeant Kurtis Howard who ordered the subsequent full body search of Dr Duff at Stoke Newington Police Station now faces a police misconduct hearing for allegedly breaching the standards of the profession.

Dr Duff was arrested on suspicion of obstructing police on the Wilton Estate in Hackney when she tried to give the card to the boy, published by the Green and Black Organisation, to a teenager undergoing a search.

The Green and Black Organisation monitors police behaviour at demonstrations and the card was aimed specifically at those arrested at protests.

Philosophy lecturer Konstancja Duff claims she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and flashbacks after being strip-searched by police in 2013

Ms Duff made a complaint to the police watchdog a year after her arrest following her acquittal by magistrates of obstructing and assaulting police.

During the search her clothes were cut off and she claims she was carried through the police station with her breasts exposed, wearing nothing but a paper suit, while she was taunted by officers for being 'childish' she has claimed.

A panel for the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) was shown CCTV footage of Dr Duff sitting on the floor in a caged area outside the police station for 15 minutes refusing to move while officers tried to reason with her.

She was eventually carried inside by four officers but refused to give her name or address, and was later strip-searched.

Dr Duff, who was studying for a masters in performance at the Royal College of Music, says she was forced to postpone her final piano recital as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder and flashbacks from the trauma of her arrest.

In her evidence to the IOPC panel on Wednesday, Dr Duff said she was acting in the spirit of 'passive resistance' pioneered by the civil rights movement, by refusing to co-operate.

She said: 'I was concerned about (the teenager's) welfare, he was clearly distressed and I was also concerned about the problem - which is quite widely known - of racial profiling. I wanted to make sure he was aware of his legal rights around stop-and-search.'

Dr Duff said she had the card after it was handed to her at a previous protest.

After her arrest, she refused to speak to officers except to ask to see a doctor when she arrived at the station.

'I felt my arrest had been unjust, I was there for acting in passive, non-violent resistance,' she said.

She said she was following advice on printed card, which tells detainees to answer 'no comment' to all questions and not to give details such as name and address during a stop-and-search.

The teenager she tried to help was later found to have a 6in knife in his sock, but Dr Duff said she had just been trying to stand up for his rights.

The lecturer was arrested when Metropolitan Police officers were arresting a teenager in Hackney

'Obviously I had no idea he had a knife on him but the principle of legal rights is that they are for everyone - what I had been arrested for was standing up for someone's legal rights,' she said.

'I think that speaks to the political/protest-type note of what was going on - classic civil rights movement, limp passive resistance.'

She said a lot of her behaviour in refusing to co-operate with police was down to shock at being arrested for handing someone a legal advice card.

'I wanted to speak to someone genuinely independent, either a solicitor or a doctor - it was so outside anything I had ever experience I was genuinely scared.'

Dr Duff, who was a self-employed philosophy student at the time of the incident, said she was unable to work for a few months after her arrest.

'There was a short period of time when I couldn't pay my rent so I stayed with friends until my PhD funding started later in the year,' she said.

'I was suffering from panic attacks which I had counselling for at the time. I still have the occasional spasm and I was given a PTSD diagnosis and I'm on the NHS waiting list (for counselling).'

Sgt Howard's misconduct hearing, which is scheduled to last for three days, continues.