Six police officers were involved in a WhatsApp group involving jokes about murder victims and where messages “read like a grotesque carnival of discrimination and abuse”, a misconduct hearing was told.
The group, named BDA, was uncovered in 2024 and involved Cambridgeshire Police officers based out of Peterborough.
Within the 40,000 messages were jokes about George Floyd – who was killed by a police officer in the US in 2020 – and a domestic murder victim who was kicked to death.
Sgt Connor Hall, Sgt Nathaniel Richards, Sgt Kristian Lutz, PC John House and one known as Officer A resigned prior to misconduct hearings in August, while Insp Simon Berrill was dismissed after one on Tuesday.
The case comes soon after a Panorama undercover investigation revealed serving Metropolitan Police officers called for immigrants to be shot, revelled in the use of force and were dismissive of rape claims.
The case of the five officers who resigned heard “all officers were complicit in being part of a chat that made various abusive and personal comments about colleagues, made discriminatory comments based on race and disability, made various misogynistic and sexualised comments about different females, shared various pieces of police data, and shared videos that could undermine or discredit the police”.
The hearing found that had the officers still been serving in the force they would have been dismissed without notice.
The Whatsapp group existed from February 2020 for about two years, and not all officers were involved throughout.
Mr Berrill’s hearing, at Lysander House in Tempsford, was told the messages sent by other officers in the Cambridgeshire group included racist comments about the French and Chinese, while Mr Berrill “mocked a colleague with autism”.
Thom Dyke, representing the police standards departments, said Mr Berrill made “repeated requests” to see bodycam footage of the aftermath of a murder.
In a separate incident, while Mr Dyke did not specify who the message referred to, he said Mr Berrill sent one which he included “my biggest regret is not getting her killed”.
Heather Oliver, for Mr Berrill, said he had “not shirked the reality of his own misconduct” and had not resigned like the others.
She said Mr Berrill, who has received two police commendations, was in the group for about two-and-a-half months and had sent 90 messages out of thousands.
Mr Berrill admitted gross misconduct but Simon Megicks, chief constable for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who started the role last month, said it “might be thought he had no option other than to make the admissions”.
In a statement released after the hearing the chief constable said: “There is no place in policing, or in society, for racist, misogynistic or abusive language. Every officer should know this, and every officer will be held to account.”
