Met officers guilty of sending racist and disablist comments including mocking Katie Price's son

Eight serving and former Metropolitan Police officers have been found guilty of “gross misconduct” over “discriminatory and offensive” messages they shared, including some which made fun of Katie Price’s disabled son. The officers – seven men and one woman – were found to have sent sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and disablist comments in a WhatsApp group called “Secret Squirrel ****” between May 17 2016 and June 26 2018. Legal chairman Christopher McKay described gross misconduct as a “breach of the standards of professional behaviour that is so serious as to justify dismissal”, during the fifth day of the haring at Palestra House in Southwark, central London, on Thursday. He found each former and serving officer to have committed gross misconduct over their own messages, as well as by “failing to challenge or report” the conduct of others in the group. The hearing concerned former sergeant Luke Thomas, former acting sergeant Luke Allen, former Pc Kelsey Buchan, former Pc Carlo Francisco, former Pc Lee South, former Pc Darren Jenner, Pc Glynn Rees, and Officer B, who has been granted anonymity.

Speaking exclusively to ITV News London in February, Katie Price described feeling "shocked and upset" and hoped anyone found guilty of sending the messages would go to prison. Several posts were made about Price’s son Harvey, who suffers from Prader–Willi syndrome and autism. "They need to be punished, they were big enough to make all these comments and now they have to deal with the consequences," Price told ITV News London. "This is a WhatsApp group made by eight police officers we are talking about a lot of messages going on for two years [between 2016 and 2018] and something has to be done." "They are disgusting human beings!" Price added.

"I've got some comments here and some are just too shocking to say.

"There's one here which has a horrible swear word in it says: 'For a [swear word] he can't see and can't find his way to the fridge and a biscuit jar with little difficulty.'

"That's mocking Harvey for him being born blind.

"It is disgusting, it is shocking and it upsets me. It really does upset me but I have to be strong because I've got five children and the other four will read about this and I have to be strong for Harvey - it's shocking, it upsets me," she explained.

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