Former Met Police officer defends messages shared with the killer of Sarah Everard

Tap above to watch video report by Senior Correspondent Ronke Phillips

A former policeman has accused prosecutors of “trying to criminalise innocent police officers” over allegedly sexist, racist and ableist “jokes” they made in a WhatsApp chat with Sarah Everard’s killer.

Former Pc Joel Borders, 45, is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court along with serving Metropolitan Police constables Jonathon Cobban, 35, and William Neville, 34, charged with sending “grossly offensive” messages to the group in 2019.

All three deny charges relating to improper use of a public electronic communications network between April 5 and August 9 2019.

Their WhatsApp chat group comprised seven officers who had transferred from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary to the Met.

It is known that messages from the chat were found on Wayne Couzens’ phone during investigations into the murder of Sarah Everard last year, though the court has not made direct reference to this due to other ongoing hearings.

Borders, who described himself as an “exemplary” officer after having his message joking about raping a female colleague read to the court, worked for the Civil Nuclear Constabulary from March 30 2014, and transferred to the Met on February 11 2019.

He left the force on December 9 2020 for unrelated reasons and before he was told about Couzens or that he was being investigated for misconduct in August 2021.

'Blown out of proportion'

During cross-examination by his lawyer, Nicholas Yeo, on Friday, Borders told the court that he was “well thought-of on the job”, and his “joke” messages had been “blown out of proportion”.

“I was an exemplary officer,” he said. “I always turned up to work early, I always dressed smart, made sure my boots were clean.

“My image was perfect and I behaved perfectly with people. I know that’s me saying this, but I was well thought-of on the job.”

Borders admitted that he was “naive” when he first joined the Met in February 2019, but handling “delicate matters” changed his sense of humour.

He said his jokes were not intended to offend the people they were about, and gave the example of a joke he made about his mother, who has dementia, after she suffered a fall and broke her hip a few months ago.

He said he made his “exhausted” 75-year-old father laugh by telling him not to visit her in hospital if he was too tired because “she won’t remember”.

“You might say that’s offensive to people with dementia, but it made my dad laugh, and all of a sudden his mood changed – his whole attitude changed,” he said.

During a later, heated exchange with prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward, Borders said: “You are trying to criminalise innocent police officers.”

'Take exception to certain jokes'

Indicating his former colleagues in the dock, he said: “Those officers in there are probably going to lose their jobs, just because you take exception to certain jokes.”

Cobban, from Didcot, Oxfordshire, bowed his head and fixed his gaze at the ground as these comments were made, before taking to the witness box himself.

In messages previously heard by the court, Cobban described a hospital patient he was dealing with in derogatory terms and made a critical comment about diversity in Hounslow.

Cobban said that, like many emergency services workers, he had “developed a dark sense of humour” as a “coping mechanism” and described the messages as “banter between mates”.

Responding to jokes about domestic violence victims, Cobban described the comment as “quite obviously sarcastic” and a way of “venting frustrations”.

Cobban said: “Since then, I have been to many domestics and some of them are heart-breaking. I would not find that joke funny now.”

Asked by Mr Yeo whether he thought the messages would be read by people outside the group chat, he said: “Not for one second.

“As far as I was concerned these messages were on a private, encoded WhatsApp group and they would never be read by anyone outside the group.”

William Neville, of Weybridge, Surrey, watched from the dock, and was due to give evidence later.

The trial continues.