A police officer who was among the first responders to the 2017 London Bridge terror attack has been dismissed from his role after a misconduct hearing found he used offensive language in WhatsApp messages relating to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Detective Constable Mark Luker, of the British Transport Police (BTP), was found guilty of gross misconduct on February 21, 2026, following an investigation into messages sent between 2024 and 2025.
The misconduct panel heard that Luker used the term “pikey” – a derogatory slur – on multiple occasions within a WhatsApp group called “Selbie Gumshoes,” comprised of colleagues from the Major Serious and Organised Crime (MSOC) team. In one exchange, on December 31, 2024, during a conversation about a whiskey bottle with a security tag, Luker wrote: “Was this a raffle on a certain kind of site? Lots of mobile type homes? Lots of ‘Dags’.” He followed this by stating: “You are the MSOC pikey liaison.” The panel determined these messages deliberately linked the Irish Traveller community to theft.
The term “dags” was identified as referencing a scene in the film Snatch, where a character’s accent is mocked, and was deemed derogatory by the panel. On March 17, 2025, after a group member shared a video of a St. Patrick’s Day parade, Luker responded: “Off to identify some scrap metal, lead roofing and cable,” a statement the panel concluded was a deliberate and discriminatory association of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community with theft. He used the term “pikey” again on March 27, 2025, which the panel also found to be disrespectful.
During the hearing, Luker acknowledged being one of the first officers on the scene during the June 3, 2017, terror attack on London Bridge and Borough Market, where eight people were killed and 48 injured. He stated that humour was sometimes a coping mechanism for dealing with the trauma of that day. He maintained he did not intend for the term “pikey” to be offensive, and the panel accepted that he was not “inherently racist.”
Though, the panel concluded that, given his experience as a police officer, Luker “probably would have known that this was an especially offensive use of language directed towards members of a minority community.” The 2017 attack involved a van deliberately driven into pedestrians on Borough High Street, followed by a stabbing spree by the van’s occupants in the Borough Market area. The three attackers, who were wearing fake explosive vests, were shot dead by police. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which British authorities described as an act of “radical Islamist terrorism.”
The BTP has not yet commented on whether it will appeal the misconduct panel’s decision. No further details regarding potential disciplinary action beyond dismissal have been released.
