Met police officer sacked for using racial slur in WhatsApp message

  • 12/17/2021
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A Metropolitan police officer has been dismissed for using a racial slur in a mobile phone message to a colleague. The slur was revealed during an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regulator into the sharing of photographs of the murder scene of sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in Wembley, north London, in June 2020. Investigators searched a phone belonging to a colleague of PC Harry Chandler, and found he had used the slur in a WhatsApp chat discussing which area of London to rent a flat in. The IOPC said PC Chandler, who was based at the Met’s North East Borough Command police station, had been dismissed without notice after allegations of gross misconduct were proven at a disciplinary hearing which concluded on Friday. The independently chaired disciplinary panel found the case proven that he had breached the standards of professional behaviour relating to equality and diversity, and had shown discreditable conduct, the IOPC said. PC Chandler, who admitted the allegation, will also be placed on the barred list preventing him from future employment within the police service. The former Met officers Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for taking and sharing photos of the bodies of Smallman and Henry. PC Chandler’s messages were found on a phone that belonged to Lewis. Graham Beesley, the IOPC’s regional director, said: “PC Chandler’s offensive use of language in his WhatsApp messages came to light while we investigated the photographs taken at the scene of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry’s murders, by former Met officers Jamie Lewis and Deniz Jaffer. “His dismissal today sends a clear message that the use of offensive language, whether on or off duty, is wholly unacceptable.”

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