Met inspector ‘in WhatsApp chat with sexist, racist and pornographic messages’
Inspector Charles Ehikioya, 58, could be sacked if the allegations are proved.
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Your support makes all the difference.The Metropolitan Police’s Black Police Association head was in a WhatsApp chat where there were jokes about sex with a girl with Down’s syndrome and mockery of the late Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip’s car crash, a misconduct hearing has been told.
Inspector Charles Ehikioya is accused of being in a chat with former Pc Carlo Francisco, who in 2023 was separately found guilty of gross misconduct over messages shared in a group with seven others, including some which made fun of Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey.
Their chatlog included a “clearly racist” video mocking a Korean woman pronouncing Coca-Cola, graphic images of a woman on her period, pictures of a female’s face being slapped by an erect penis and a joke about a “Taliban call girl”, it was alleged.
Inspector Ehikioya also sent a video in which a child with a naked bottom was shown, it was alleged.
The officer, based in the professionalism command, could be sacked if allegations he was in a group where inappropriate, racist and misogynistic texts were sent between 2017 and 2020 and that he failed to challenge them are proved.
Some messages involved extreme violence, such as people being shot in the head, a Met Police gross misconduct hearing at Palestra House in London heard on Monday.
Inspector Ehikioya denies the claims, saying the messages were either fabricated or falsely attributed to him because of his race or position at the MBPA, it was said.
James Berry, counsel for the Appropriate Authority, said that many of the thousands of messages allegedly sent between them over three years were a “disgrace” and inappropriate for a police environment.
He criticised the “wholly offensive” joke about a girl with Down’s syndrome, in which the term “Mr Bum Spastic” was used.
There was also an image depicting Prince Philip’s car crash in January 2019 which also referenced Diana, Princess of Wales.
In April 2019, Inspector Ehikioya sent a message to Pc Francisco, telling him to “stop sending or receiving these silly porns” and in November of that year said “do not send any indecent images or videos from your phone especially that relating to child pornography”, it was heard.
Mr Berry said: “Some of the messages in issue in this case would rightly cause the public to be concerned as to whether the officers would be capable of impartially discharging their duties when it comes to women, given the sheer volume of derogatory and demeaning comments and imagery.”
The messages were discovered after a female PCSO complained about Pc Francisco in December 2020 and his phone was seized.
Mr Francisco was dismissed in July 2022 for “an unrelated matter” involving “discreditable conduct”, the Met said.
Inspector Ehikioya, who joined the Met in 1998, was criminally investigated over two images sent by Pc Francisco but the allegations were deemed not for further action, it was heard.
He denies the allegations, and his defence is that he did not send or receive the messages, Mr Berry said.
Inspector Ehikioya previously claimed he was racially harassed by two white colleagues when he was stopped while driving home from work.
The officer said he was pulled over in Croydon, south London, on May 23 2020.
No action was taken against the inspector as a result of the stop and the Met said a review “found no evidence of misconduct”.
The hearing is due to run until January 10 and Inspector Ehikioya is on restricted duties until it ends.