Sarah Everard: Five police officers facing action over social media messages

Five police officers are facing misconduct proceedings over messages sent about Sarah Everard's killer Wayne Couzens.

The police watchdog said it had carried out two investigations into messages sent on WhatsApp and Signal.

The officers are from four forces: the Metropolitan Police as well as Sussex, Dorset, and Avon and Somerset.

If proven, the claims could further undermine people's confidence in policing, the watchdog warned.

Couzens, a former Met Police officer, was given a whole life sentence for Ms Everard's murder last month. He abducted her as she walked home from a friend's house in March.

The murder sparked a discussion over trust in the police, with the Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick saying she was determined to rebuild public confidence.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct - which handles complaints about forces in England and Wales - said it had run two separate investigations into social media messages, and found that a total of five police officers had cases to answer.

In the first investigation, it looked at claims that a probationary Met officer had shared an "inappropriate graphic depicting violence against women" with colleagues on WhatsApp.

The IOPC said the graphic was intended to refer to Ms Everard's kidnap and murder. Although the officer was off duty at the time, they later worked at a police cordon as part of the search.

The image was "highly offensive" and the officer will now face a misconduct meeting, the IOPC said.

Another probationary officer, also from the Met, will also face a misconduct meeting for allegedly sharing the graphic and not challenging it.

A misconduct meeting is for cases which could result in a final written warning. It is different to a misconduct hearing, which is for more serious cases of gross misconduct which could result in the officer being dismissed from the force.

The IOPC also carried out a second investigation, looking at claims that seven officers from different forces shared information about Couzens' prosecution in a chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal.

One officer from Dorset Police was accused of sharing details of an interview given by Couzens under caution, which was not yet allowed to be reported. That officer will face a gross misconduct hearing.

Two other officers - from Sussex Police, and Avon and Somerset Constabulary - were also in the Signal conversation and were accused of making unprofessional remarks about Couzens and endorsing comments made by others.

The Sussex officer had a meeting this week and misconduct was not proven - although the officer was told to undergo "the reflective practice review process", the IOPC said.

The officer from Avon and Somerset Constabulary will face a misconduct meeting in due course.

"In April this year we warned about the unacceptable use of social media by officers based on a number of cases involving the posting of offensive and inappropriate material," said Sal Naseem from the IOPC.

"We wrote to the National Police Chiefs Council, asking them to remind forces and officers of their obligations under the police Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Behaviour.

"The allegations involved in these two investigations, if proven, have the capacity to further undermine public confidence in policing. They also once more illustrate the potential consequences for officers and come at a time when policing standards and culture have never been more firmly in the spotlight."

The IOPC said it was continuing to investigate the conduct of five other officers relating to messages sent in a WhatsApp chat group in 2019. The messages were recovered from an old mobile phone discovered during the police investigation into Ms Everard's murder, the IOPC said.

The IOPC is also still looking into how Kent Police in 2015, and the Met this year, handled allegations of indecent exposure which have been linked to Couzens.