North Yorkshire Police officers shared racist messages, hearing told

The misconduct hearing has been taking place at North Yorkshire Police headquarters in Northallerton

Racist WhatsApp messages shared by two police officers were found when one gave in their phone as part of another inquiry, a hearing has been told.

Det Con Danielle Kirby and PC James Mills, both of North Yorkshire Police, exchanged the offensive texts in 2018 and 2019, a misconduct panel heard.

But at the police hearing on Tuesday, their lawyers argued the messages had not been obtained lawfully.

A panel will decide if the misconduct hearing against them can proceed.

Both officers are currently suspended from the North Yorkshire force.

The misconduct panel in Northallerton heard that Ms Kirby signed a consent form to allow officers to look through her phone while they were investigating allegations she had made against another police officer in a separate case in March 2020.

Ms Kirby had told officers that Mr Mills was a witness in the case who could have information about the allegations she had made, the panel heard.

The case was later dropped with no further action taken against the police officer at the centre of the allegations.

However, the misconduct panel heard that during that investigation, officers had discovered several racist Whatsapp messages sent by Ms Kirby and Mr Mills between 2 December 2018 and 8 March 2019.

A number of offensive comments were made in the messages, including references to fundraising campaigns by musician Bono and actor and comedian Lenny Henry.

Det Con Kirby and PC Mills exchanged racist messages on WhatsApp, the misconduct panel heard

Barrister Ben Summers said Ms Kirby gave consent for her phone to be used as part of a potential criminal investigation, but that it should not have been searched for any other information.

"What is the relevance of the messages to the complaint that DC Kirby made?" he asked.

"This is a classic case of reverse engineering a line of inquiry. All that's being said is that the ends justify the means."

Mr Summers argued that the messages had been "obtained unlawfully" by police and that misconduct proceedings should not proceed further.

But Olivia Checa-Dover, representing North Yorkshire Police, said the authority had not acted unlawfully.

Ms Kirby had given her "express consent" for the phone to be examined while she was a serving officer, Ms Checa-Dover said.

"There is a duty on the police when they find information on one avenue, to use it when it gives rise to this type of misconduct. It wasn't an indiscriminate search," she added.

Ms Checa-Dover said the investigation had looked at messages between Ms Kirby and Mr Mills because he had been named as someone who might have relevant information to Ms Kirby's case.

The misconduct hearing continues on Thursday.