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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Daniel Keane

Met Police officer admits sending ‘grossly offensive’ WhatsApp messages

A Met Police officer has admitted sending “grossly offensive” messages of an “indecent, obscene or menacing character”.

PC Tom Phillips, 34, from Croydon, has been suspended from duty after sending five WhatsApp messages in breach of the Communications Act 2003 between April 8 and May 8, 2021.

On each occasion he “sent by means of a public electronic communications network a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.

Phillips pleaded guilty to the charges at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, despite originally denying them.

The officer, who was off-duty when the offences occurred, will be sentenced at the same court on August 25.

His offences are being investigated by the Met Police’s directorate of professional standards.

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