Two Met police officers sacked over offensive messages about Katie Price's son

Two serving Metropolitan Police officers have been dismissed over discriminatory messages sent to colleagues in a WhatsApp group, including some about Katie Price's disabled son.

They were part of a group of eight who shared offensive messages in a chat entitled 'Secret Squirrel S***' between May 17 2016 and June 26th 2018.

A gross misconduct hearing today found that another six former officers would also have been dismissed without notice had they still been serving.

Legal chairman Christopher McKay described gross misconduct as a "breach of the standards of professional behaviour that is so serious as to justify dismissal", during the fifth day of hearings at Palestra House in Southwark, central London, on Thursday.

He found each officer to have committed gross misconduct over their own messages, as well as by "failing to challenge or report" the conduct of others in the group.

Their messages included derogatory comments about 20-year-old Mr Price, who suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome and autism, and about a junior female officer, known in the hearings as Officer A.

Learning disability charity Mencap, where Mr Price is an ambassador, condemned the officers' comments.

A spokesman for Mencap said: "It's absolutely appalling that serving police officers have been found guilty of sharing abusive content about vulnerable people, the very same people they have a duty to protect.

"We stand alongside our ambassador Harvey and condemn their actions."

The charity added that it hoped the disciplinary outcome would "serve as a warning to those who turn a blind eye, or worse partake in bullying".

The London Mayor Sadiq Khan told us;

"Londoners will be as disgusted as I am. We've got serving police officers who can behave in this way, having Whatsapp messages which are clearly racist, sexist, homophobic and unacceptable not just from members of the public but definitely from police officers.

There is no place in our police service for people like this. Our police service has been found to be institutionally racist, institutionally homophobic, institutionally misogynistic, we've got to be anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-misogynistic.

The new Commissioner and I are determined to make sure that there is no place for people like this in our police service. We've got to improve our recruitment, our vetting, our supervision but also make it easier to get rid of these bad officers, we've got to change the culture in our police service. "

Commander Jon Savell, Professionalism, said:

“I was repulsed and ashamed to read the deeply offensive messages sent by these officers and I utterly condemn their behaviour. I am deeply sorry to those who have been the subject of such awful disgusting messages.

“The Commissioner has been very clear about our commitment to finding and getting rid of anyone in the Met who has these highly offensive attitudes and today's result is an example of that. I have over 600 colleagues in our professional standards directorate – a team we have significantly grown – whose absolute focus is on this critically important piece of work. We are under no illusion that public trust and confidence in us depends on us re-establishing our integrity and professionalism.

“This is another painful day for us. We know there are more uncomfortable days to come as we turn over the stones and uncover others who corrupt our integrity.”

An investigation into the WhatsApp messages was launched in March 2021. More than 6,000 messages had been sent in just under two years. Many of these included highly offensive comments about a number of communities and individuals, including colleagues.

The officers were served with misconduct notices in April 2021 and placed on restricted duties immediately afterwards. Five of them resigned before the hearing and one had already been dismissed for an unrelated matter.

The officers will now be added to the Barred List held by the College of Policing. Those appearing on the list cannot be employed by police, local policing bodies (PCCs), the Independent Office for Police Conduct or His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

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