A YOUNG woman has told of her distress after a male Customs officer rifled through the underwear in her luggage. Penny Williams, 18, felt ‘exposed and embarrassed’ while officials at the airport searched her baggage.

She was detained and questioned for almost an hour.

The A-level student, who had flown over from Birmingham to visit her mother, was ‘confronted’ by the Customs officer as she approached the arrivals exit doors.

‘He didn’t have a single ounce of respect for me,’ she said.

‘He let me walk past him and then followed me. He judged me like I was guilty straight away.’

Customs confirmed a routine search had taken place and was investigating the complaint.

A spokesman said: ‘Our staff are highly trained and officers do carry out routine searches of personal effects belonging to the opposite gender.’

Miss Williams said she was asked questions to establish her identity.

A female officer then proceeded to swab every item in her hand luggage. The male removed all her clothes from her suitcase.

‘That was the worst bit,’ she said.

‘The final part to search was where I keep my underwear. He removed every item from this section and placed it onto a table and started picking his way through, feeling every single item. The whole experience really upset me.’

Miss Williams had to phone her mother to say she was being held. She added that at no point did officials explain why she was being detained, other than because she appeared nervous.

‘I’ve got no problem with it if it’s for security reasons, but when he said it was because I looked nervous, I was shocked,’ she said.

‘I’d had a rough flight anyway and I didn’t feel my best.’

Miss Williams frequently travels to Guernsey to visit family and often came on camping holidays as a child. She was concerned that visitors might be severely affected by such treatment.

‘I love Guernsey and I love coming over here,’ she said. ‘But if I didn’t have family here and know the island very well, my vision of Guernsey as a tourist would have been scarred by the experience.’

She believed that only female Customs officers should be allowed to search through a woman’s possessions and male officers through men’s.

‘Something has to change at Guernsey Airport. Passengers should be treated with respect, regardless of age and appearance.’

Customs said all officers had the power to routinely search passengers’ luggage.

To conduct a personal search, the officer must have reasonable suspicion and that can be carried out only by officers of the same gender.

A special team is looking into the matter independently.