Metropolitan Police officers sentenced to three months in jail over 'abhorrent' messages

Two Metropolitan Police officers have been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment after sharing racist, homophobic, misogynistic and ableist messages in a WhatsApp group with Wayne Couzens.

However, Pc Jonathon Cobban, 35, and former Pc Joel Borders, 46, were bailed ahead of an appeal against their convictions at the High Court.

The pair were members of a chat called “Bottle and Stoppers” on the encrypted platform with fellow officer Wayne Couzens, 49, before he murdered Sarah Everard.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard how they joked about raping a female colleague, talked about tasering children and people with disabilities, and displayed racist views in the group in 2019.

The messages were discovered after then serving Met officer Couzens kidnapped, raped and strangled to death 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard in March last year - but took place two years before her murder.

Cobban was found guilty of three counts of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network, while Borders was convicted of five charges after a Westminster Magistrates’ Court trial.

District Judge Sarah Turnock jailed Cobban and Borders for 12 weeks on Wednesday, saying she could not think of “more grossly offensive messages”.

Judge Turnock said: “They encapsulated the full range of prejudiced views, racism, misogyny, ableism and homophobia,” the judge said.

“There was no intention on the part of the defendants to cause any harm to the persons to whom these messages relate or the minor groups of society who are undoubtedly effected by these messages,” she continued.

“The persons to whom these messages relate will undoubtedly been caused great distress by knowing police officers find it funny to joke about them in such a deeply offensive manner.”

The judge said the messages “represent jokes specifically targeted or about people or groups as police officers “they had sworn an oath to protect”.

“Significant harm has undoubtedly been caused to public confidence in policing as a result of these offences.”

During the trial, each defended his actions claiming the comments were examples of "dark humour", but the judge rejected this account, saying training they had each received should have meant they would have been aware of the public reaction to the messages.

When delivering her verdict, Judge Sarah Turnock said the messages they shared within "a small circle of trust" were "starkly at odds" with how they presented themselves to the outside world.

She said that this "strengthened the conclusion" that the officers knew that they "would have caused gross offence to members of the public".

“The WhatsApp group in which these messages were posted appears therefore to have been viewed by the defendants as a safe space, involving a small number of like-minded individuals, in which they had free reign to share controversial and deeply offensive messages without fear of retribution," she said.

She said Cobban and Borders had shown no “genuine remorse” but were “indignant” to find themselves before the court and felt they were being “scapegoated”.

Nicholas Yeo, defending, said that along with losing their jobs, Borders and Cobban would be victims of “cancel culture” because their names have “become toxic”.

“If they had committed robbery or GBH they would find it easier to find a job than being linked to the furore of Mr Couzens,” he said.

Pc William Neville, 34, who was also a member of the WhatsApp group, was previously cleared of two counts of sending grossly offensive messages.

The police watchdog previously said all six officers in the group with Couzens are accused of breaching police standards of professional behaviour and could face disciplinary action from their forces.

Regional director for the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), Sal Naseem, said on Wednesday: “Social media cannot be a hiding place for such views and it’s important that officers understand that it doesn’t matter whether they are expressed on a public platform or as part of a private messaging group.

“Along with police forces themselves we will continue to ensure that this type of behaviour is rooted out and those responsible are held to account for their actions.”

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) special crime division, said: “The messages exchanged between these officers were disturbing and sickening, and it is unfathomable that those tasked with upholding the law could think it right to share this grossly offensive material.

“The court agreed that the messages amounted to criminal offences, and it is only right that Cobban and Borders are punished for their abhorrent actions.

“Let me be clear, where there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so, the CPS will always prosecute these offences robustly.”

The IOPC previously revealed that the WhatsApp group charges arose from an investigation into the phone records of Couzens.

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