The top of the Metropolitan Black Police Affiliation has been dismissed for gross misconduct over a chat with a former officer wherein racist, sexist and inappropriate messages have been despatched and acquired. Inspector Charles Ehikioya, who was the full-time chairman of the MBPA, was in a WhatsApp chat with former officer Carlo Francisco, wherein the messages have been despatched and acquired, a misconduct listening to at Palestra Home in London discovered on Friday. He additionally didn’t report them, the panel discovered. In additional than 7,000 messages between 2017 and 2020, the officer was stated to have despatched and acquired jokes, footage and movies, it was heard beforehand. Inspector Ehikioya stated the claims have been fabricated or falsely attributed to him due to his race or place on the MBPA, the misconduct listening to beforehand heard. He despatched a picture of the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, with the remark “message from the opposite aspect, inform the Muslims there’s no 72 virgins left”, it was beforehand stated. There was additionally a sequence of “racist” messages about Chinese language folks, the listening to was instructed. Jokes about intercourse with a woman with Down’s syndrome, and mockery of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s automobile crash, have been additionally within the chatlog, as was a video wherein there was a toddler with a unadorned backside, James Berry, representing the Met, stated beforehand. On April 1 2019, Inspector Ehikioya instructed Mr Francisco to “cease sending or receiving these foolish porns”, saying he might get into “hassle”, the listening to was beforehand instructed. Inspector Ehikioya was discovered to have dedicated gross misconduct by a panel, led by Commander Jason Prins, after they discovered allegations that his conduct amounted to a breach of the requirements {of professional} behaviour, in respect of equality and variety, discreditable conduct and difficult and reporting improper conduct, confirmed at a listening to on Friday. Commander Prins stated the panel “discovered that Inspector Ehikioya has engaged in racist, sexist, misogynistic and in any other case inappropriate behaviour”. He added: “The panel finds to a big extent that the messages communicate for themselves.” He additionally stated they discovered his defence of the allegations to be “fanciful” and “far-fetched”. Commander Prins stated: “The panel discovered that the messages despatched by Inspector Ehikioya or acquired by him, which he didn’t problem or report, deeply harm public confidence within the police service.” He concluded by saying the panel discovered the actions amounted to gross misconduct and have been “so critical as to probably justify dismissal”. After a break for the panel to contemplate sanctions, Commander Prins stated the “applicable and proportionate sanction” was dismissal with out discover. Mr Francisco was in a separate group chat known as “Secret Squirrel Shit” wherein Inspector Ehikioya was the topic of racism from colleagues, in November 2016, together with references to chains, wicker baskets and cotton-picking, the listening to was instructed earlier this week. Nicholas Yeo, for the inspector, who was not within the group, stated in his closing argument that the phrases are “intrinsically linked” to slavery within the US within the 1800s. He went on: “Laptop Francisco could not have been motivated in a method, when it comes to a strict motivation, however it’s fairly clear that he was a part of a vile, racist group that needed to do the officer nice hurt for no cause apart from his race.” In 2023, Mr Francisco was individually discovered to have dedicated gross misconduct over the messages shared in that group, together with seven others, together with some which made enjoyable of former glamour mannequin Katie Value’s disabled son Harvey. He was dismissed in July 2022 for “an unrelated matter” involving “discreditable conduct”, the Met stated. Mr Yeo beforehand stated that Inspector Ehikioya is just not a racist particular person and has devoted his life to combating racism and should have been focused due to this. Mr Berry stated in his closing argument that the suggestion the messages have been fabricated by Mr Francisco was “plainly nonsense” due to an absence of motive. He beforehand instructed the listening to that after Inspector Ehikioya’s telephone was seized by police on October 18 2021, there have been greater than 357,000 WhatsApp messages deleted in complete, and the complete interplay between him and Mr Francisco was “doubtless” amongst them. In a press release after the listening to, Inspector Ehikioya stated he’ll “discover each accessible choice to problem this dismissal” and known as the choice a “private assault”. He stated he “categorically” denies the allegations and is “dismayed” by the choice for him to be dismissed after “three a long time of devoted policing service”. Inspector Ehikioya beforehand claimed he was racially harassed by two white colleagues when he was stopped whereas driving residence from work. He stated he was pulled over in Croydon, south London, on Might 23 2020. No motion was taken towards him on account of the cease and the Met stated a evaluation “discovered no proof of misconduct”.
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