Athlete Ricardo Dos Santos labels Met Police ‘institutionally racist’ and says ‘little has changed’

Two Metropolitan Police constables have been dismissed without notice after a disciplinary panel found their actions during a “highly distressing” stop and search of two Black athletes amounted to gross misconduct.

Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were sacked after it was found they lied about smelling cannabis when they pulled over Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos, 28, and his partner and Team GB athlete Bianca Williams, 29, on 4 July 2020.

The police followed the athletes as they drove to their west London home from training with their baby son, then three months old, in the back seat of their Mercedes.

Mr Dos Santos spoke after the disciplinary hearing and said “very little has changed in policing in London since the Stephen Lawrence case”.

“If you can’t trust the police to be honest and accept when they have done bad and stereotype black people, what hope is there? I don’t believe that the panel has been brave enough to review what the Casey report has already clearly stated, which is that the Met Police is institutionally racist.”