Yet another shamed Met police officer could face the boot, for kicking and punching a man he was arresting.
Thomas Karlsen, 22, has admitted assault causing actual bodily harm during a callout to a domestic dispute. We can reveal the attack came a year after the PC was reported by another officer for lashing out at women on social media.
Karlsen was already facing misconduct proceedings for these tweets – deemed unprofessional, offensive and abusive in a Met report.
Ex-Met officer Alice Vinten, 42, who reported them in October 2021, said: “If someone has a warrant card and they’re a bully, then they’re a dangerous police officer.
“If the police had taken it seriously in the first place, then he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to assault him.”
Karlsen was finally suspended from duty when he attacked the man while arresting him on suspicion of a breach of the peace in New Malden, south-west London, last November.
The constable, from Richmond, south-west London, pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday. He was released on bail and will be sentenced on August 8.
His boss at the South West Basic Command Unit, Detective Chief Superintendent Clair Kelland, said: “The high standards we expect were not met and it is right that appropriate action was taken.”
The Met declined to comment further while the social media misconduct case is ongoing.
A report seen by this newspaper concluded he had failed to “exercise self-control and tolerance”.
It found there was a case to answer on three of five allegations, including calling people “snide c****”.
He also told women to stop using the “race card” and “playing the victim”, which resulted in him being referred to learning.
Karlsen told one woman to “seek medical help to fix your victim mentality” and a retweet referred to women as “vindictive little s*****” and “bigger c****”.
The case comes after the force was branded institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic in a landmark report ordered following the murder of Sarah Everard, 33, by a serving Met policeman.
Shocking social media abusers among Met cops have included PCs Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis – both jailed in December 2021 for taking and sharing photos of murdered sisters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, on WhatsApp while guarding their bodies in a park.
