Met Police officers sacked over racist joke about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Two Metropolitan Police officers have been sacked after posting offensive messages in a group chat, including a racist joke about the Duchess of Sussex.

Pc Sukhdev Jeer and Pc Paul Hefford, who worked in a unit at Bethnal Green police station in east London, posted inappropriate, highly offensive and discriminatory content on WhatsApp in 2018.

Their actions, labelled “abhorrent and discriminatory”, amounted to gross misconduct, a tribunal decided on Friday, meaning they were dismissed from the force.

They also failed to challenge and/or report the members of the group after receiving the offensive messages.

The hearing at the Empress State Building, in west London, heard the posts, including one comparing Meghan to a “golliwog” toy, were “discriminatory and serious in nature”.

Messages from former officer Richard Hammond, who was also in the group, were regarded as misconduct by the tribunal panel.

‘Highly corrosive and discriminatory’

Chairman Maurice Cohen said the panel came to the decision having assessed the seriousness of the behaviour, the culpability and the harm the messages caused.

He said: “Dismissal is the only appropriate action”.

It means the men, whose actions were labelled “completely unacceptable” by the Met, cannot be employed by other police bodies across the UK.

Mr Cohen slammed the posts as “highly corrosive and discriminatory” to members of the public “including those in the local community” they served.

He had earlier said: “The postings in this group caused serious reputational damage to the Metropolitan Police as a whole.

“They were mocking and discriminatory to many sections of society the Metropolitan Police force was meant to be policing.”