A Metropolitan Police detective was hauled before a disciplinary hearing over racist WhatsApp messages after she was shopped by her ex-boyfriend at the end of their “toxic” relationship.
Detective Sergeant Victoria Teagle called one of her female colleagues a “slutty ch**k” and a “little c***” in private messages to then-boyfriend Sergeant Nicolaou between January and April 2021.
A misconduct panel heard she was referring to a policing colleague, who is white, but Teagle was accused of using the slur “because she perceived her to have small and slanted eyes”.
DS Teagle, a member of the Met’s sexual offences investigation team who was promoted to Detective Sergeant in 2017, claimed at her hearing that she used the word to mean “cheap” or “tacky”.
But the panel concluded it had been intended as a racist slur.
Condemning the officer for her use of language, they concluded the messages were never intended to be seen by the other officer, had been “jealousy fuelled”, and sent in the midst of a “toxic relationship”.
DS Teagle was handed a final written warning, allowing her to go back to work in the Met.
The hearing was told DS Teagle’s three-year relationship with Sgt Nicolaou ending in October 2021, and had been “couched in jealousy from both parties”.
Sgt Nicolaou, dubbed "promiscuous" in the misconduct report, suspected DS Teagle of having an affair at the end of their romance, and after confronting her about his suspicions he handed over the private WhatsApp messages to police bosses.
In January 2021, she wrote: "What are the ch**k and the man not in? xxxx", and later the same day she added: "Helllllllo! Why are you so quiet? Not like your booking in!! You Wanna work with that sluts team... you are not helping yourself and don't tell me the sluts amt in as the ch**k slut has written on a record!! xxxx"
The following day she messaged: "If that slutty ch**k doesn't speak with you why would she feel the need to join the conversation when I'm there???? xxxx"
She then wrote: "Yeah who knows!! Or that she does it anyway when I'm not around...little c***!! xxxx", followed by: "Where is that ch**k? Don't make me come down and see xxx".
The panel found her guilty of gross misconduct, but decided not to order immediate dismissal.
“The language used is clearly racist and significantly unpleasant. It is not the language that a Police Supervisory officer should ever be engaged in using.
“The officer was on duty and sent the messages to her partner who was also on duty. The messages were about other members of police staff who were also working at the time.”
The panel found DS Teagle had expressed remorse, and the messages “were sent within the context of a toxic and jealousy-riddled relationship which may well have affected her proper thinking at the time.”
She put forwarded a “large number of glowing references” including from her Borough Commander, in support of her case.
