Three London police officers were charged Thursday, February 17 for exchanging offensive messages on WhatsApp, announced the British prosecution, at a time when Scotland Yard is going through a crisis of confidence which led to the departure of its chief.
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Two police officers still serving and a third who left the ranks of Scotland Yard are suspected of having exchanged racist and misogynistic messages with Wayne Couzens, a police officer sentenced to life in prison for the March 2021 kidnapping, raping and killing of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old Londoner, according to the British news agency PA.
Scotland Yard facing a crisis of confidence
The three suspects are summoned to a London court on March 16 for a first hearing, according to the British prosecution (Crown prosecution service, CPS). “Each of the three defendants was charged with sending an offensive message on a public communication networkRosemary Ainslie of the CPS said in a statement, adding that the alleged offenses took place on a WhatsApp group. This case had emerged during the investigation into the murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 when the contents of Wayne Couzen’s phone had been examined by investigators. The messages in question date back to 2019.
The murder of Sarah Everard had deeply shocked the United Kingdom. Scotland Yard had been accused of ignoring a whole series of alarming signals about the behavior of Wayne Couzen. The London police had also been harshly criticized for their muscular intervention to disperse a rally in tribute to the victim. She was also shaken by the scandal of a double murder case, where two police officers took pictures of themselves on the spot before sharing the photos.
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All these cases have plunged the London police, which has made the notion of consensus a cardinal value of its relationship with the population, into a deep crisis of confidence. This resulted a week ago in the announcement of the resignation of its chief Cressida Dick, in office since 2017 and the first woman at the head of the London police. She was pushed out by the Labor mayor of the capital, Sadiq Khan, dissatisfied with Cressida Dick’s responses to a recent report denouncing racist, misogynistic and discriminatory behavior in his ranks.
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