Indian-origin Scotland Yard officer dismissed for ‘offensive’ messages
India Today
An Indian-origin Scotland Yard officer was dismissed for ‘offensive’ messages in a group chat, including a racist joke about the Duchess of Sussex.
An Indian-origin officer is among two dismissed from Scotland Yard without notice for their highly offensive and discriminatory behaviour following a professional standards investigation examining a year’s worth of social media messages, including a racist jibe about Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
Police Constable (PC) Sukhdev Jeer and PC Paul Hefford, both attached to Forensic Services in the Metropolitan Police, faced a misconduct hearing which concluded this week that allegations against them of exchanging vile messages was proven.
The tribunal heard details of several racist posts, including reportedly one containing a racist slur about Markle, shortly before her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018.
“These vile messages were shared in 2018 within a closed WhatsApp group between a small group of officers. I hardly need to say it is completely unacceptable for anyone, let alone a police officer, to behave in such a manner. The actions of these three are inexcusable,” said Commander Jon Savell, Professional Standards.
“The whole of the Met is focused on rooting out anyone who displays this type of behaviour and lets down the Met and the public we serve. Behaviour like this will absolutely not be tolerated and we are driving that message home to our officers and staff at every opportunity,” he said.
The officers faced an allegation at the level of gross misconduct that between December 2017 and December 2018, while working at Central East Command Unit, they were part of a WhatsApp group on their private phones.
They used the group to exchange messages, memes and other content which was inappropriate, highly offensive and discriminatory. The content was discriminatory on the grounds of sex, race, religion, sexual orientation and disability.
