Sacking and final warnings over police WhatsApp chat

A police officer has been sacked and others were handed final warnings over messages posted in a work WhatsApp group.

A disciplinary hearing into six serving and former Dorset Police officers previously found four committed gross misconduct and two committed misconduct.

The officers were all part of a team created to tackle drug supplies through county lines operations and help safeguard victims of cuckooing.

The panel heard an officer found a sex toy in a vulnerable woman's home and "handled it inappropriately" before posing for a photograph with it.

Serving officers Sgt Kennie Wilson, PC Kate Trent and PC Mark Philpotts faced gross misconduct allegations, alongside former officers Sgt Timothy Borrill, PC Matthew Williamson and PC Daniel Moore for their behaviour in the group during the summer of 2020.

PC Philpotts was found to have committed gross misconduct after sending a message using a derogatory term about two women in Verwood.

He has been dismissed without notice after panel chair, Assistant Chief Constable Neil Corrigan, said they felt he had not learnt from the experience.

Sgt Wilson and PC Trent were handed final written warnings, which will last for two years.

ACC Corrigan said Sgt Wilson had "failed to challenge effectively" after the image of a sex toy was posted in the WhatsApp group.

He added PC Trent's warning was to "send a message that discriminatory language, even if unintended, is unacceptable".

The panel previously heard PC Trent sent messages in the chat referring to members of the public commenting on a post from a police Facebook account as "fatties".

In another message to the group, she said: "He's probably 'disabled' too."

The panel ruled if former officers Sgt Borrill, PC Williamson and PC Moore had not already resigned they would have been dismissed without notice.

ACC Corrigan said Sgt Borrill, who resigned in December 2024, had sent messages to the group which were "misogynistic, sexualised, derogatory, particularly towards another special sergeant".

He added Sgt Borril's "manipulation" of other officers was "especially serious", explaining he had used the group to find out intelligence for incidents "without any legitimate policing purpose".

PC Williamson was put on restricted duties in July 2022 and later resigned in April 2023.

The panel described him as one of the "ring leaders" of the group.

He found a sex toy in a vulnerable woman's home and "handled it inappropriately", before holding it while another officer took a photograph, the panel heard.

ACC Corrigan added: "Posing with the sex toy was for personal amusement and intended to humiliate a vulnerable person.

"This was a gross abuse of the trust whilst in that person's home."

PC Moore was the officer responsible for originally setting up the group and his use of language in the chat had been "vulgar, discriminatory and inappropriate", ACC Corrigan explained.

The panel previously heard PC Moore, who resigned in October 2022, asked for the image of PC Williamson posing with the sex toy and sent it to someone outside of the police force.

A Dorset Police spokesperson explained the officer who took the photo of the sex toy and the officer who sent it to the WhatsApp group have not been named during the hearing due to ongoing criminal proceedings.

The messages first came to light in 2022 and the force referred the case to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in July 2022.

The IOPC held an independent investigation, which concluded in November 2023, and found the officers "have a case to answer for gross misconduct".

Regional director of the IOPC, David Ford, said they were faced with "several thousand pages of messages".

He explained: "Some of the messages shared within the group were wholly inappropriate, unprofessional and discriminatory, and we found there was an absence of proper challenge or reporting among officers involved.

"The attitudes revealed in some of these messages are completely unacceptable and have no place in policing."

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