Thomas Daley, 49, who was based in Canterbury, is alleged to have pursued a sexual or improper relationship with a woman with whom he came into contact during the course of his duties. Between 24 and 25 July 2020 he allegedly sent her inappropriate text messages, which had no policing purpose.
[they] fought their prosecution for sending racist, misogynist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobia and ableist WhatsApp messages from start to finish. The defendants said their posts were just “banter” or dark jokes and called charges under a law that criminalises grossly offensive communications “ridiculous” in court. They tried, and failed, to get the case thrown out in July and then denied all charges.
Cobban told Westminster Magistrates’ Court: “As far as I was concerned, these messages were sent on a private, secured WhatsApp group and I had no expectation they could or would be read by anyone outside that group.” He said that as former officers who guarded sensitive sites had a “dark sense of humour”, adding: “I meant them to be taken as humorous banter and nothing more.” Borders, who became a close protection officer after leaving the Metropolitan Police, said the case had “got out of hand”.
Addressing a female prosecutor, he added: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. You’re trying to criminalise innocent police officers, you’ve got two really good police officers in there who are going to probably lose their jobs over this, just because you take exception to certain jokes. People get offended by everything. You need to stop this grossly offensive thing because it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Borders was questioned about a message where he wrote of a female police officer: “She will use me as an example. Lead me on then get me locked up when I rape and beat her! Sneaky b****.” He responded: “I was saying she was the type of person who would make a false allegation, rape and beat should have been in quote marks. It’s an exaggerated way of saying she is not to be trusted … she’s the sort of person who is really underhand and devious.”
The court was shown chats appearing to joke about police performing sex acts on domestic violence victims, with Cobban writing: “That's alright, DV victims love it... that's why they are repeat victims more often than not.” When asked about the message in court, the officer said it was “quite obviously sarcastic”.
At another point, Cobban described an incident where he had to look after a person who needed hospital treatment after self-harming as an “attention seeking, self-harming f*g”. He denied targeting the gay community with the comment and said his use of the slur was “un-targeted derogatory name calling”.
Responding to a colleague’s account of responding to domestic violence incidents days later, Borders wrote: “Bet they all had one thing in common. Women that don’t listen.” When giving evidence in his defence, Borders said he had regularly been called to domestic abuse incidents and that some were “horrendous”, saying the posts were just “silly comments”.
During the same exchange, Cobban called a racially diverse areas of London as a “s***hole”, described a member of the public who asked him for directions as “yellow” and remarked: “Not even the shops are in English.” The officer denied being racist but admitted that the messages were in “very poor taste”. Borders wrote that he “felt like a spot on a domino” in the London district of Feltham and described Hounslow as “twinned with Baghdad”. He denied disparaging the areas because of their racial diversity and said he described himself as a spot on a domino as a “celebration of diversity”.
In April 2019, Borders wrote that he could not wait to “shoot some c*** in the face” with a police firearm and Cobban replied: “Me too. I want to taser a cat and a dog to see which reacts better … same with children. Zap zap you little f***ers.” Borders replied “and a couple of downys?”, in what prosecutors said was a reference to people with Down’s Syndrome. Borders told the court the exchange was “clearly a joke”, adding: “It’s blatantly obvious, I don’t know why this is even here [on the indictment], it’s ridiculous.”
Little more detail:
Met PC Jonathon Cobban and former Met PC Joel Borders were convicted today of sharing grossly offensive messages in a WhatsApp group which also included rapist murderer Wayne Couzens. Both were warned they faced the "real possibility" of jail time.
The eye miss the chance to say maybe the Met should be disbandedThis was in the last Private Eye about the not-so independent IOPC and Met corruption.
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Of course. Their interests don't go as far as dismantling the interests of State.The eye miss the chance to say maybe the Met should be disbanded
police sources suggest they feared he could speed at them and cause injuryUpdate on the Donald Burgess killing.
He was in his own room (in a wheelchair, with one leg). What threat he posed to anyone apart from perhaps himself is beyond me
Family of 93-year-old dementia sufferer who died after being tasered slams police
THE FAMILY of a one-legged 93-year-old dementia sufferer who died after he was tasered in his care home have slammed the police.www.theargus.co.uk
This is fucking creepy behaviour, even worse with the innocent smiles when challenged.
Can't hear what they're mumbling so don't know if they said what they're quoted as saying but certainly looks that way.
Home Office suspends ex-Met officer over racist WhatsApp chat
Former Metropolitan Police officer, Rob Lewis, has been put on leave from his UK Border Force job after he set up a WhatsApp group filled with white supremacist content, including messages and memes about the Government's policy to deport migrants to Rwanda for processing, slurs about 'black' MPs as well as abuse towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. There was at least one joke about the recent devastating flooding in Pakistan, where 1,700 have died and millions were displaced.
I just watched the first of those videos, and whoever he is, he's fucking ace.
It's also strangely therapeutic watching, what are fairly long videos in which not much happens, and seeing the lad get the better of the filth. All with mostly polite assertiveness and knowing his stuff.
Border Force, jfc.
What the fuck?
What the fuck?