Four Metropolitan Police officers who shared inappropriate messages about Harvey Price, the disabled son of Katie Price, have been found guilty of gross misconduct. The officers were part of a WhatsApp group which contained messages that were deemed to be sexist, racist and ableist in nature. The group was discovered during an investigation into an unrelated matter, and all four officers have since resigned. The findings of the misconduct panel have been described as “shameful” by disability rights campaigners, who have emphasized the need for greater education around ableism within the police force.
A total of eight serving and former Metropolitan Police officers have been found guilty of gross misconduct for sharing ‘discriminatory and offensive’ messages via the WhatsApp group, ‘Secret Squirrel Shit’, which contained sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and disablist comments. The messages also featured derogatory comments about Katie Price’s disabled son, Harvey. The WhatsApp conversations were exchanged between May 2016 and June 2018.
Christopher McKay, the legal chairman of the misconduct hearing, described gross misconduct as “a breach of the standards of professional behaviour that is so serious as to justify dismissal.” He ruled that each officer had committed gross misconduct by sharing their own messages and “failing to challenge or report” the conduct of others in the group.
The eight officers in question were former Sergeant Luke Thomas, former Acting Sergeant Luke Allen, former PCs Kelsey Buchan, Carlo Francisco, Lee South, and Darren Jenner, along with PCs Glynn Rees and Officer B, who has been granted anonymity.
Officer B posted an offensive message in the group featuring an edited photograph of Harvey Price with a racist caption referring to his disability, “You’ve heard of elf on a shelf, now get ready for Harvey Price eating Uncle Ben’s basmati rice after trying to read three blind mice on spice, saying ‘hello you c***.”. McKay ruled that this post breached the standard of equality and diversity, was inappropriate and offensive to Harvey Price, and was gross misconduct.
McKay said that former Sergeant Luke Thomas was one of the most active participants in the group and mocked Harvey’s weight in some messages, called Officer A “f****** ugly”, and joked that he should name his dog “Auschwitz”, “Adolf”, “Fred”, or “Ian” after “my two favourite child sex killers”.
According to the panel, Thomas failed to adequately supervise or guide his team in respect to conduct, given his supervisory role as a sergeant. Instead, he became one of the group’s main contributors, which constitutes gross misconduct.
McKay also ruled that Mr. Jenner contributed to the conversation by citing concentration camps, while serving PC Rees described an image of Harvey Price riding a child’s train as “genius”. The panel found this to be making fun of Harvey’s disability and behaving in a childlike manner.
Former PC Allen, who resigned in January, posted a photograph of himself in the chat attempting to imitate Harvey and made inappropriate comments about mentally disabled people, offensive references to Germans and Nigerians, and about “a victim of sexual assault”. Former PC Buchan, who resigned in March last year, called a colleague a “f****** rude little c***” and later apologized directly to Officer A for the inappropriate comments she had made.
Former PC Francisco, who was dismissed in July 2022, made offensive comments criticizing Officer A’s appearance. The panel heard that former PC South, who was one of the more active members of the chat, said: “If any of this group got out my job would be f***** long ago.” South also made several racist comments in the WhatsApp group, referring to a black male as “it” and made a reference to “cotton picking” when talking about a black inspector.
None of the officers attended the misconduct hearing on Thursday, and the outcome is due to be announced on Friday.
