The Metropolitan police’s Black Police Association head was part of a group chat where “racist” jokes about east Asian people and a video mocking Katie Price’s disabled son, Harvey, were shared, a misconduct hearing was told.
Insp Charles Ehikioya is accused of being in a chat with former officer Carlo Francisco where racist, misogynistic, homophobic and pornographic messages were sent.
Ehikioya, who is the chair of the MBPA, could be sacked if the claims are proved – but he says they were fabricated or falsely attributed to him because of his race or position at the MBPA, it was heard.
In more than 7,000 messages between 2017 and 2020, the officer allegedly sent and received jokes, pictures and videos described by James Berry, representing the Met, as disgraceful and inappropriate. He is also accused of failing to report them.
Ehikioya sent an image of the 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 Harvey Price’s face, as the person filming says “Go on Harvey, yeah”.
In 2023, Francisco was separately found guilty of gross misconduct over messages shared in another WhatsApp chat, including some about Harvey Price.
Katie Price, 46, said at the time she was “shocked and upset” by the comments officers made about her son, who has Prader-Willi syndrome and is autistic. Scotland Yard apologised to them after the hearing.
There were also a series of “racist” messages about Chinese people, it was alleged. On 1 April 2019, Ehikioya allegedly warned Francisco to “stop sending or receiving these silly porns”, saying he could get into trouble.
The hearing was told that 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”.
There was also a “clearly racist” video mocking a Korean woman pronouncing Coca-Cola, graphic images of a woman on her period and pictures of a woman’s face being slapped by an erect penis, it was alleged.
Ehikioya denies the allegations, and his defence is that he did not send or receive the messages, Berry said.
The hearing is due to run until 10 January and Ehikioya is on restricted duties until it ends.
Source: theguardian.com
