Police officer's texts found to be gross misconduct

The two officers involved no longer work for Avon and Somerset Police

A former police officer who texted a fellow detective to say two colleagues who were late to a briefing got away with it because they were black, committed gross misconduct, a tribunal has ruled.

Det Con Simon Jones sent the messages to Det Con Robert Corry when they both worked at Avon and Somerset Police.

Det Con Jones denied writing anything intended to be racist.

A misconduct panel said Det Con Jones had committed gross misconduct, with Det Con Corry's behaviour amounted to the less serious finding of misconduct.

An investigation was carried out by the professional standards department after Det Con Jones sent a message saying: "If that was you and me, we would get the sack."

The force believed Det Con Corry was equally at fault for the exchange, but the panel disagreed, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Chairman of the panel, Callum Cowx, said the the message suggested Det Con Jones and Det Con Corry would be dealt with differently, “the inference being because of their colour".

He added the Det Con Corry's "wrongdoing" had been failing to challenge the message he received.

'Out of context'

Police Federation branch secretary Sgt Tony Henley, representing Det Con Jones, said that the messages had been taken out of context.

He said the conversation took place while both officers were off-duty at their homes and on personal devices.

Det Sgt Andrew Coggins, representing Det Con Corry, said the ex-officer had already been planning to resign before an investigation began and that he had an "unblemished" 14-year police career.

He said: "This is not a case of hate speech."

The force dropped an allegation that the comments were discriminatory on the grounds of race, although the panel was told that the officers had accepted the texts could be considered at face value as racist.

Neither former officer attended the hearing and both have resigned from the constabulary.

The hearing continues.