One of the first police officers on the scene of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack has been sacked for gross misconduct after using the word “pikey” in messages about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people.
In one WhatsApp message, Detective Constable Mark Luker of British Transport Police (BTP) used the term “dags”, referencing a scene in the Guy Ritchie film Snatch in which Stephen Graham’s character struggles to understand Brad Pitt’s character’s accent when he mentions dogs, the misconduct panel heard.
In another message, Mr Luker referred to “scrap metal, lead roofing and cable”, which he accepted was a joke to associate theft with the Irish Traveller community, the panel was told.
The panel concluded he probably knew the language was “offensive” to a minority community and ruled it gross misconduct.
He was a member of a WhatsApp group called “Selbie Gumshoes” with other members of the Major Serious and Organised Crime (MSOC) team, the panel heard.
On December 31 2024, during a conversation about someone winning a bottle of whiskey which still had a security tag attached, he wrote: “Was this a raffle on a certain kind of site? Lots of mobile type homes? Lots of ‘Dags'”, the panel was told.
He then added: “You are the MSOC pikey liaison”.
The panel found that these were “deliberate messages, that clearly link the Irish Traveller community to acts of theft”.
Mr Luker was among the first on the scene of the London Bridge terror attack in 2017
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It added that the use of the word “dags” in the messages was “derogatory” as it refers to a scene in Snatch where a Gypsy character’s accent is “mocked”.
On March 17 2025, another group member shared a video of “Paddy Day parade on Inishbofin”, with the message: “Just like a Disney World Parade. They know how to put on a show,” the panel heard.
Mr Luker replied: “Off to find some scrap metal, lead roofing and cable”, the panel was told.
The panel concluded that this was “deliberate and discriminatory” in linking the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community to theft.
On March 27 2025, he used the word “pikey” again, which the panel found to be “disrespectful”.
Mr Luker said that he was one of the first responders to the 2017 terrorist attack on London Bridge, and one of his coping mechanisms for dealing with the day can involve the use of humour.
He said he did not intend for the word “pikey” in the messages to be offensive, and the panel accepted that DC Luker is not “inherently racist”.
It wrote: “As an experienced BTP police officer used to dealing with a whole range of people, the panel found that, on the balance of probabilities, he probably would have known that this was an especially offensive use of language directed towards members of a minority community”.
Mr Luker was present on June 3 2017, when a terrorist vehicle-ramming and stabbing took place on London Bridge, where a van deliberately drove into pedestrians, crashing on Borough High Street, just south of the River Thames.
The van’s three occupants then ran to the nearby Borough Market area and began stabbing people in and around restaurants and pubs.
They were shot dead by Metropolitan Police and City of London Police firearms officers, and were found to be wearing fake explosive vests.
Eight people were killed and forty-eight injured, including members of the public and four unarmed police officers who attempted to stop the assailants.
British authorities described the perpetrators as “radical Islamist terrorists”, and The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.