Head of Met's Black Police Association sacked after sending 'clearly racist' texts about Asian people
10 January 2025, 16:09 | Updated: 10 January 2025, 16:35
The head of the Metropolitan Black Police Association (MBPA) has been dismissed without notice for gross misconduct after sending 'clearly racist' messages to a former officer.
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Inspector Charles Ehikioya was accused of being a member of a group chat with former police officer Carlo Francisco where vile racist, misogynistic, homophobic and pornographic messages were sent.
Following the conclusion of today's hearing, Ehikioya was dismissed without notice.
In more than 7,000 messages between 2017 and 2020, the officer sent and received jokes, pictures and videos described by James Berry, representing the Met, as "disgraceful" and inappropriate.
Ehikioya also failed to report the messages, the court found.
Inspector Ehikioya sent an image of the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner with the comment "message from the other side, tell the Muslims there's no 72 virgins left", a hearing at Palestra House in London was told on Tuesday.
Francisco allegedly sent a video of a man snorting white powder through a tube while wearing a mask of Katie Price’s son Harvey, as the person filming says "Go on Harvey, yeah".
Francisco has separately been found guilty of gross misconduct over messages shared in another WhatsApp chat with seven others, including some about Harvey Price.
Former glamour model Price, 46, said at the time she was "shocked and upset" by the comments officers made about her 22-year-old son, who has Prader-Willi syndrome and autism.
Scotland Yard apologised to them after the hearing.
Commander Prins said the panel "found that Inspector Ehikioya has engaged in racist, sexist, misogynistic and otherwise inappropriate behaviour".
He added: "The panel finds to a large extent that the messages speak for themselves."
He also said they found his defence of the allegations to be "fanciful" and "far-fetched".
Commander Prins said: "The panel found that the messages sent by Inspector Ehikioya or received by him, which he failed to challenge or report, deeply damage public confidence in the police service."
He concluded by saying the panel found the actions amounted to gross misconduct and were "so serious as to potentially justify dismissal".
The hearing was adjourned until later on Friday for the panel to consider its sanction.
Users also sent “sexist” images, Tuesday’s hearing was told.
One saw an image of the Back To The Future film poster amended to say "Back To The Kitchen" above the message "International Women's Day is over" in the chatlog between Mr Francisco and Inspector Ehikioya.
Another video, shared by Ehinkioya, showed a man with his face ripped off, captioned: “I think the wife did this because he was late home from the pub.”
Mr Berry added that Inspector Ehikioya sent a "homophobic" video of a preacher referencing anal sex.
The group also sent a series of “racist” messages mocking Chinese people, the hearing heard. Mr Berry said that the inspector posted a video of a female police officer in another country wearing leggings, and wrote "We def ain't got girls like that in the Met".
There were also a series of "racist" messages about Chinese people, it was alleged.
On April 1 2019, Inspector Ehikioya allegedly warned Mr Francisco to "stop sending or receiving these silly porns", saying he could get into "trouble".
The hearing was told that Mr Francisco replied: "I personally trust everyone I share something with... but sorry Charles I have to stop sharing with you now."
This was followed by two smiley faces and a later post saying "April fool ma brother ohh".
Jokes about sex with a girl with Down's syndrome and mockery of the late Duke of Edinburgh's car crash were also in the chatlog, a previous hearing heard.
There was 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.
The hearing was adjourned until later on Friday for the panel to consider its sanction.
