A former police officer who shared what are alleged to be “grossly offensive” messages in a WhatsApp group that included Wayne Couzens has told a court that his training failed to account for diversity and educate him in what words are offensive.
“It seems like almost every week there is a word that is offensive. How are you supposed to know what is offensive?” said Joel Borders, who had joked with other officers about raping and beating a colleague and using Tasers on people with Down’s syndrome, who he referred to as “downys”.
“There is nothing in the training that gives you a specific word that is offensive,” he said.
Under questioning, he told a prosecuting lawyer: “I regret being in the group because of this, because of all the harm this has caused. It has got out of hand. You are trying to criminalise innocent police officers.”
“You have two really good police officers in there and they are probably going to lose their jobs just because you take exception to certain jokes,” he said.
Borders, who said he had been described as “exemplary” when he was serving at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) before transferring to the Metropolitan police, said he had not known that the term “downys” was offensive.
PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and Borders, 45, a former officer who said he was now working as a close protection officer, are on trial at Westminster magistrates court, where they deny the charges against them.
The three are charged with sharing racist and misogynistic messages between 5 April and 9 August 2019 in a WhatsApp group with other officers. The posts were discovered after Couzens, a member of the group, was arrested for kidnapping, raping and murdering Sarah Everard in March 2021.
Giving evidence on Friday, Borders became increasingly irritated as he was questioned by legal counsel for the Crown Prosecution Service about one of his comments on the group, when he said: “I can’t wait to get on guns so I can shoot some cunt in the face!”
He compared this to when a teacher friend might joke about wanting to “strangle” a student, claiming that what he had said was “clearly a joke”.
“I don’t even know why this is here. I don’t know why you are questioning it. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
Borders also claimed that, when he posted another comment that referred to a female colleague, he didn’t believe she or others would be offended when he stated: “She will use me as an example. Lead me on then get me locked up when I rape and beat her! Sneaky bitch.”
Records of the WhatsApp group also showed that Cobban referred to the London borough of Hounslow as a “fucking Somali shit hole”, to which Borders replied: “Feltham is worse! I went there the other week and I felt like a spot on a domino!”
The trial previously heard about a message in which Neville told others in the group of a recent shift when he had pinned down a 15-year-old girl, referring to it as a “struggle snuggle”. Prosecutors alleged this to be the acting out of a rape fantasy.
During the same exchange in August 2019, Cobban added that such an approach was “always useful” and that these were “good skills” for a police officer, the court heard.
The trial continues.
