Two Dorset Police officers barred from policing for sharing offensive WhatsApp messages

A serving Dorset Police officer who posted inappropriate and offensive messages on a WhatsApp group has been dismissed without notice

Author: Ben Mitchell, PA and Maria Greenwood Published 14th Jun 2023
Last updated 14th Jun 2023

A police officer has been sacked and a former colleague told he would have been dismissed for sharing shared racist, sexist, homophobic or inappropriate messages in a WhatsApp group.

A tribunal found Inspector Nicholas Mantle, Pc Mark Jordan-Gill and former Pc Paul Perdrisat had committed gross misconduct by breaching Dorset Police's professional standards between 2018 and 2021.

Pc Michael Lowther and Pc Matthew Young, who also misbehaved, were found to have committed misconduct, with the former previously issued a written warning and the latter previously handed a final written warning.

The disciplinary panel on Tuesday dismissed Pc Jordan-Gill with immediate effect and ruled that former Pc Perdrisat would have also been removed from his job had he not already resigned.

The pair will be placed on the College of Policing's list of barred officers, the hearing was told.

Insp Mantle is to be sanctioned on a date to be set.

Panel chair James Rickard told the hearing: "The public in our view would not tolerate a police force that continues to accommodate officers who have behaved as we have found to have occurred in this instance."

He added: "It's clear the reputational harm caused to Dorset Police and policing nationally was very high, it's clearly aggravated the health of officers, there is no doubt the reputational harm was extreme."

The officers were all part of the specialist Force Support Group (FSG) based at Bournemouth that a colleague, named only as Pc A, called "toxic" because of the "bullying environment".

Pc A said during the tribunal their treatment of him left him considering suicide.

He described Perdrisat as the "alpha male" and said: "I challenged Pc Perdrisat and took him to one side. 'Why are you doing this?' And he said to me, 'By picking on the weakest link we get rid of them'."

Describing the group's behaviour, Pc A said: "Whatever we did was not good enough. They just chipped away - the team, Pc Perdrisat, Pc Jordan-Gill, a little bit by Pc Lowther and Pc Young."

He added: "I didn't want to wake up in the morning. I thought about taking my own life."

Pc A said homophobic comments were made in the office, adding: "I was astounded at professional police officers being homophobic."

Mark Ley-Morgan, representing the force, told the Winfrith hearing the officers also posted or failed to challenge items posted in a WhatsApp group called "The Real FSG".

He said: "Some can be described as sexist, pornographic, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, bullying, offensive and otherwise inappropriate.

"The officers who posted should not have done so in the first place.

"They should have been challenged and they should have been stopped.

"The officers should have left the group and reported the group."

Mr Ley-Morgan said the messages were in breach of the force's social media policy and would discredit the force because "a member of the public would be justifiably appalled" by the images and "by the officers finding them humorous".

The officers were accused of making discriminatory comments and putting up an inappropriate calendar - given as a secret Santa gift - as "wall art" in their office.

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