Dad and daughter police duo ‘mocked victims and insulted colleagues in repulsive WhatsApp chats’
3 December 2024, 14:38 | Updated: 3 December 2024, 14:40
A father and daughter - both West Midlands police officers - exchanged ‘vile’ WhatsApp messages mocking crime victims and colleagues, a disciplinary panel has heard.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Craig and Annie Napier, sent the ‘highly derogatory and offensive’ messages to each other while in active duty for the West Midlands police.
The pair used a derogatory term to refer to someone with Down’s syndrome in multiple messages, while the dad described black mental health workers as ‘fat w***’.
The daughter suggested a colleague should be ‘fly kicked in the face’, and joked about protesters being run over.
The two were found to have breached standards of professional behaviour, and the messages add up to ‘serious’ gross misconduct.
The messages, sent between April 2020 and May 2021, emerged during a separate investigation.
The panel, led by West Midlands chief constable Craig Guildford, said the messages were highly ‘offensive,’ ‘hostile’ and ‘discriminatory’.
One incident had the dad sending a modified version of the West Midlands Police logo containing the phrase 'FSU - Shovelling s*** since 2016'.
In another exchange involving a crime scene, the daughter asked: “Is she mangled?”
The dad replied: “She's face down, so can't see a lot of blood around her head.”
The daughter then said: “Oooo! You think it's murder?”
Craig said: “Who knows and dares to dream. I'll let you know when I know, babe.”
When the dad was stopped before a line of protesters, he sent a message reading: “No, still stuck on the Walsgrave Road behind around 50 now.
"The f****** s***s keep lying down on the road but the gaffer won't let us get out and baton them.”
The daughter replied: “Drive them over xxx”.
They both resigned earlier this year, but would have lost their jobs if they hadn’t, the misconduct hearing was told.
Neither apologised for their actions.
Read more: Senior serving Met officer charged with attempted rape and sexual assault
Referring to a retired female officer who came back to work in a staff position, the dad said: “They want you to wear a lesbian suit like most of them do. Ignore the c*** and carry on with what you are doing.”
Annie replied: “'Does she want me to f****** fly kick her in the face? The only dirt I'll get on my dress is her f****** blood.”
A report published after the hearing showed that PC Craig Napier was the instigator of the correspondence, but claimed his daughter was a ‘willing participant’ and was “equally as offensive.”
In the report, Chief Constable Guildford said: “The former officer’s conduct demonstrated a complete lack of integrity, care for those [they] worked with or the public [they] served.
“[Their] conduct demonstrated no respect for others, no respect for equality or diversity, it lacked courtesy and basic common human decency.”
He added: “The breaches I have found today grossly undermine trust and confidence in my view as they are highly impactive upon the public perception of officers respecting the public they serve, their colleagues, partner organisation staff and not to hold hostile and discriminatory views against people with protected characteristics.”
