Two former Gwent Police officers would have been dismissed had they still been serving, following an Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation into discriminatory, offensive and derogatory messages shared on WhatsApp.
At the end of a one day misconduct hearing, former PCs James Heley and Simon Lewis, who resigned three days before the hearing, were found to have breached police standards of professional behaviour relating to authority, respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, and discreditable conduct. Both former officers have now been placed on the police barred list.
Gwent Police made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct in November 2022 after derogatory and inappropriate messages were found on the phone of deceased former officer Ricky Jones.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct began its investigation soon after, which expanded to 11 serving and former officers who had exchanged WhatsApp messages between April 2015 and February 2019. The messages in the group included comments of a racist nature related to the Grenfell Tower disaster. PC Heley shared a video portraying violence against a woman, and PC Lewis made homophobic remarks linked to a colleague’s trip to Thailand.
IOPC Director Derrick Campbell said: “Many of the messages shared within the WhatsApp group over several years were discriminatory, wholly inappropriate, and unprofessional.
“The misogyny, homophobia and racism revealed within these messages was shocking, completely unacceptable and has no place in policing. This behaviour and the attitudes it exposed has the real potential to undo the great work undertaken by police officers on a daily basis, including those who seek to build trust and confidence with communities, especially communities who are harder to reach and those representing minority groups.”
A digital forensic examination of Mr Jones’ phone by Independent Office for Police Conduct investigators led to the download and analysis of hundreds of messages shared between Mr Jones and several of his former colleagues. During the investigation, which concluded in October 2023, investigators also obtained statements, interviewed individual officers and reviewed relevant force training and policies.
