Two police officers have been sacked after sending racist text messages during the London riots that welcomed the burning of Lewisham, \u201calong with all the spades\u201d.<\/p>\n
PC George Cooper, 41, who worked for the armed parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit (SO6), and Lewisham-based PC Stephen Newbury, 49, were found by a panel to have sent \u201cracist and discriminatory\u201d messages.<\/p>\n
Both were dismissed from the Metropolitan police without notice following a public misconduct hearing on Wednesday. \u201cThere is no place for officers who hold racist views in London\u2019s police service,\u201d said deputy assistant commissioner Fiona Taylor, from the Met\u2019s directorate of professional standards.<\/p>\n
The misconduct hearing was told that at the height of the 2011 riots in London, Newbury was sick with tonsillitis when he was sent a message by Trevor Barrett, then also a constable with the Met, who asked him if he was at work.<\/p>\n
He replied: \u201cOff mate, though had shit loads of missed calls. Papa Lima [Lewisham] can burn as far as I\u2019m concerned, along with all the spades.\u201d Spade is an archaic racial slur that was used to refer to African-Americans.<\/p>\n
Deputy assistant commissioner Maxine de Brunner, who chaired the disciplinary panel, was quoted by the Police Oracle as describing the message as \u201cclearly racist\u201d during the hearing.<\/p>\n
Among the offensive messages sent by Cooper was one sent on 23 November 2011, also to Barrett, which said: \u201cThese little black cunts are really fucking me off, if they want to act like monkeys why don\u2019t they fuck off to the jungle.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Brunner told the hearing: \u201cThe panel was particularly concerned about this message which was composed by PC Cooper. It demonstrates to the panel this officer holds racist views.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newbury was found to have sent 24 inappropriate text messages to another serving officer, while Cooper sent eight such messages. Most of the messages were not revealed in the hearing and Scotland Yard refused to release further details of their content.<\/p>\n
However, the Met confirmed that reporting by Police Oracle, a specialist publication, was correct. \u201cThe messages were described as racist and discriminatory in tone and content,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
In Newbury\u2019s defence, his barrister said that his text read out in the hearing was sent when the officer was extremely angry about the public disorder in London in August 2011. Cooper claimed that his daughter had owned the phone that his offensive messages were sent from, but the panel said this claim had little credibility since other messages from the same number referred to police work.<\/p>\n
Both officers\u2019 defences also contended that since the messages were sent in private they could not be said to have undermined confidence in the police. However, de Brunner said that the reality was that neither man could have retained control of the messages once they had been sent.<\/p>\n
Scotland Yard said that Newbury breached its standards in relation to authority, respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, discreditable conduct, confidentiality and orders and instructions.<\/p>\n
Cooper was found to have breached standards relating to authority, respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct.<\/p>\n
Cooper and Newbury\u2019s messages were discovered by officers from the DPS who were working on Operation Alice, the investigation into the 2012 Plebgate affair, when Tory cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell clashed with police at the gates of Downing Street.<\/p>\n
They found them while searching a computer belonging to Barrett, at his home in Sussex. Although he was cleared of involvement in Plebgate, Barrett resigned from the force last year after facing separate misconduct hearings.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two police officers have been sacked after sending racist text messages during the London riots that welcomed the burning of Lewisham, \u201calong with all the spades\u201d. PC George Cooper, 41, who worked for the armed parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit (SO6), and Lewisham-based PC Stephen Newbury, 49, were found by a panel to have sent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":158379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n