TORONTO - Some women arrested during the G20 summit are alleging police made sexual threats and used sexually charged language against them while they were in detention.

The allegations were made in two video testimonials played at a media conference Thursday organized by the Toronto Community Mobilization Network in Toronto.

One of the women, Amy Miller, said she was detained for about 13 hours in a cell where she was threatened by police.

"I was told I was going to be raped," said Miller, an independent journalist reporting for the Toronto-based Alternative Media Centre during the June 26-27 summit.

"I was told that they were going to make sure that I was never going to want to act as a journalist again by making sure that I would be repeatedly raped while I'm in jail."

The other woman, Lacy MacAuley, described a police officer sitting on her pelvic area and using "sexually charged" terms that she didn't want to repeat out loud.

When contacted about the allegations Toronto police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray encouraged anybody who feels they have been mistreated by a police officer to file a complaint with the office of the independent review director.

The police service is not responding to individual allegations, Gray said, adding there are several disciplinary actions that could be put in place if an officer is found guilty of a serious complaint.

Anything from loss of pay through to dismissal and criminal charges could be applied, but that it "depends entirely on the investigation and on the case," she said.

Beverly Bain, a women's studies professor at Laurentian University who attended the media conference, said it's unlikely women will want to come forward and make a complaint.

The fear of sexual assault can be as profound as an actual assault, she said.

"These women are not going to go forward and say I want to make a report against the cops," she said.

Bain also said women feared being strip-searched, which she called a form of sexual assault because it is a violation of women's bodies.

But Gray said the police department has a "lengthy and comprehensive procedure related to searches" that includes strip searches and is based on case law and a ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada.

"The procedures themselves are not publicly available so I can't get into too much detail," she said.

As for women not wanting to file complaints about police conduct, Gray said the review office is an independent civilian-run body.

"The complaints process has changed in the last couple of years," she said.

"Before this process you had to file your complaint about police to police. And this process has now changed."