Two Metropolitan Police officers have been sacked after posting offensive messages in a group chat, including a racist joke about the Duchess of Sussex. PC Sukhdev Jeer and PC Paul Hefford, who worked in a unit at Bethnal Green police station in east London, posted inappropriate, highly offensive and discriminatory content on WhatsApp in 2018.
Their actions, labelled “abhorrent and discriminatory”, amounted to gross misconduct, a tribunal decided on Friday, meaning they were dismissed from the force. They also failed to challenge and/or report the members of the group after receiving the offensive messages.
The hearing at the Empress State Building, in west London, heard the posts, including one comparing Meghan to a “golliwog” toy, were “discriminatory and serious in nature”. Messages from former officer Richard Hammond, who was also in the group, were regarded as misconduct by the tribunal panel.
