The head of the Metropolitan Black Police Association could be sacked after sending and receiving racist, sexist and inappropriate WhatsApp messages.
Inspector Charles Ehikioya, the full-time chairman of the MBPA, was in a WhatsApp chat with Carlo Francisco, a former officer, in which the messages were sent and received, a misconduct hearing found on Friday.
He was found to have committed gross misconduct by a panel, led by Commander Jason Prins, after they found allegations that his conduct amounted to a breach of the standards of professional behaviour, in respect of equality and diversity, discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct, proven at a hearing on Friday.
Commander Prins, who led the panel, “found that Inspector Ehikioya has engaged in racist, sexist, misogynistic and otherwise inappropriate behaviour”.
He added: “The panel finds to a large extent that the messages speak for themselves.”
Inspector Charles Ehikioya arrives at a Metropolitan Police misconduct hearing at Palestra House – Lucy North
In more than 7,000 messages between 2017 and 2020, the officer was said to have sent and received jokes, pictures and videos, it was heard previously.
Inspector Ehikioya said the claims were fabricated or falsely attributed to him because of his race or position at the MBPA, the misconduct hearing previously heard.
He sent an image of the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, with the comment “message from the other side, tell the Muslims there are no 72 virgins left”, it was previously said.
There was also a series of “racist” messages about Chinese people, the hearing was told.
Jokes about sex with a girl with Down’s syndrome, and mockery of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s car crash, were also in the chatlog, as was a video in which there was a child with a naked bottom, James Berry, representing the Met, said previously.
‘Trouble’
On April 1 2019, Inspector Ehikioya told Mr Francisco to “stop sending or receiving these silly porns”, saying he could get into “trouble”, the hearing was previously told.
Commander Prins also said they found his defence of the allegations to be “fanciful” and “far-fetched”.
He said: “The panel found that the messages sent by Inspector Ehikioya or received by him, which he failed to challenge or report, deeply damage public confidence in the police service.”
He concluded by saying the panel found the actions amounted to gross misconduct and were “so serious as to potentially justify dismissal”.
The hearing was adjourned until later on Friday for the panel to consider its sanction.
Subject of racism
Mr Francisco was in a separate group chat called “Secret Squirrel S–t” in which Inspector Ehikioya was the subject of racism from colleagues, in November 2016, including references to chains, wicker baskets and cotton-picking, the hearing was told earlier this week.
In 2023, Mr Francisco was separately found to have committed gross misconduct over the messages shared in that group, along with seven others, including some which made fun of former glamour model Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey.
He was dismissed in July 2022 for “an unrelated matter” involving “discreditable conduct”, the Met said.
Nicholas Yeo, for the inspector, previously said that Ehikioya is not a racist person and has dedicated his life to fighting racism and may have been targeted because of this.
‘Plainly nonsense’
Mr Berry said in his closing argument that the suggestion the messages were fabricated by Mr Francisco was “plainly nonsense” because of an absence of motive.
He previously told the hearing that after Inspector Ehikioya’s phone was seized by police on October 18 2021, there were more than 357,000 WhatsApp messages deleted in total, and the full interaction between him and Mr Francisco was “likely” among them.
Inspector Ehikioya previously claimed he was racially harassed by two white colleagues when he was stopped while driving home from work.
He said he was pulled over in Croydon, south London, on May 23 2020.
No action was taken against him as a result of the stop and the Met said a review “found no evidence of misconduct”.