“Shocking” racist, sexist and homophobic messages exchanged by police officers have been published in a watchdog probe that found highly offensive language was dismissed as “banter”.
Details of messages from WhatsApp and a Facebook chat group included references to rape, violence against women, racist and homophobic abuse and were unveiled by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on Tuesday.
The watchdog took the unusual step of publishing the messages in full – much of the content is too offensive to publish – as it detailed the “disgraceful” behaviour of Metropolitan Police officers based in a now disbanded Westminster team between 2016 and 2018.
