Met officer’s WhatsApp chat was gross misconduct, panel finds

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Met officer’s WhatsApp chat was gross misconduct, panel finds

BBC

A panel found Insp Charles Ehikioya’s messages amounted to gross miscounduct

The head of the Met’s ****** Police Association (MBPA) has been found to have committed gross misconduct over a group chat where racist, sexist and inappropriate messages were sent and received.

Insp Charles Ehikioya was in a WhatsApp chat with former officer Carlo Francisco where offensive messages sent and received.

The officer had denied the allegations against him and said the claims were fabricated or falsely attributed to him because of his race or position as chair of the MBPA.

A panel found his conduct amounted to a breach of the standards of professional behaviour and said it was “so serious as to potentially justify dismissal”.

The panel, led by Cdr Jason Prins, found Insp Ehikioya breached standards in respect of equality and diversity, discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct proven at a hearing on Friday.

A decision on whether he will be dismissed has not been made yet.

In more than 7,000 messages between 2017 and 2020, the officer was said to have sent and received jokes, pictures and videos, it was heard previously.

He sent an image of the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, with the comment “message from the other side, tell the Muslims there’s no 72 virgins left”, it was previously said.

There was also a series of “racist” messages about ******** people, the hearing was told.

Jokes about sex with a girl with Down’s syndrome, and mockery of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s car ******, were also in the chatlog, as was a video in which there was a child with a naked bottom, James Berry, representing the Met, said previously.

PA Media

Insp Ehikioya’s conduct was “so serious as to potentially justify dismissal”, the panel found

On 1 April 2019, Insp Ehikioya told Mr Francisco to “stop sending or receiving these silly porns”, saying he could get into “trouble”, the hearing was told.

Cdr Prins said the panel “found that Inspector Ehikioya has engaged in racist, sexist, misogynistic and otherwise inappropriate behaviour”.

He added: “The panel finds to a large extent that the messages speak for themselves.”

He also said they found his defence of the allegations to be “fanciful” and “far-fetched”.

Commander Prins said: “The panel found that the messages sent by Inspector Ehikioya or received by him, which he failed to challenge or report, deeply damage public confidence in the police service.”

The hearing was adjourned until later on Friday for the panel to consider its sanction.

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