Bruce Thain and
Kathryn Armstrong
Three Metropolitan Police officers have been sacked for gross misconduct after appearing in an undercover report by Panorama.
Sgt Joe McIlvenny, PC Philip Neilson and PC Martin Borg faced expedited misconduct hearings on Thursday over secret filming aired in the programme. They denied allegations of gross misconduct but accepted they made the comments aired in the programme.
Allegations against all three were upheld during the hearings, and all were dismissed with immediate effect.
They are the first of 10 current or former officers to face hearings as part of the Met’s accelerated misconduct proceedings over footage from the investigation.
Chair of the panel, Cdr Jason Prins, described the conduct of all three officers as a “disgrace”.
He said of Mr Neilson and Mr Borg that it “must have been obvious” to them that “the comments made were abhorrent.” Both denied being racist.
He added that Mr McIlvenny’s conduct was “exacerbated as he was a Police Sergeant and in a leadership position”.
In a statement following the hearings, Met Police professionalism Cdr Simon Messinger, said the force had upheld a promise to hold misconduct hearings “at the earliest opportunity”.
“We have since replaced the custody team at Charing Cross, made changes to local leadership and wider work continues to identify any other areas of concern in detention teams across the Met.”
Sgt Joe McIlvenny had been serving with the Met Police for nearly 20 years when he was secretly recorded being dismissive about a pregnant woman’s allegation of rape and domestic violence against her partner.
When a detention officer questioned a decision to release the man on bail alleged to have raped the woman, she said he had also been accused of kicking her in the stomach. PS McIlvenny was recorded replying: “That’s what she says.”
Panorama also filmed the sergeant making misogynistic comments while working at Charing Cross police station.
At the hearing on Thursday, Mr McIlvenny argued that “what was missing was the context” to his comments. He requested to shift to a reduced role in the force after being found of gross misconduct.
He told the panel since the programme was aired he has been diagnosed with PTSD and was receiving therapy.
Referring to the undercover reporter he said: “He was a very clever man. He has groomed and exploited my vulnerable state and used that to coerce these conversations.”
Mr Neilson was recorded by the referring to an “invasion” of “scum” from the Middle East, and made offensive comments about people from Algeria and Somalia.
He was also observed saying a detainee who had overstayed his visa should have a “bullet through his head”.
The other allegations against Mr Neilson related to “glorifying what he was describing as inappropriate use of force on a restrained detainee” and for suggesting unlawful violence against migrants who broke the law.
Cdr Jason Prins found all the allegations proven.
The hearing was told that he did not dispute the words he said but argued they only amounted to just misconduct.
Giving evidence, Mr Neilson said he had been a police officer for four years and denied he was a racist.
He said he believed the undercover reporter “breached his humans rights” and it was the reporter who “kept bringing up these conversations” and “egging me on”.
Mr Neilson said he had eight or nine pints of Guinness while at the pub when he made some of the comments and said he was not a “drinker”.
He said he did not discriminate against anyone and footage from his body worn camera would show “no matter the ethnicity I did everything with the utmost respect”.
Cdr Prins ruled that Mr Neilson’s comments caused “significant harm” to the reputation of Metropolitan Police and wider public confidence in the police and amounted to gross misconduct, describing the conduct of the officer as an “utter disgrace”.
The Met had previously said he had “displayed extreme racial, violent and discriminatory views”, as well as a lack of “respect, courtesy and professionalism”.
PC Martin Borg, who worked out of Charing Cross Police station, was also dismissed on Thursday.
An undercover reporter recorded Mr Borg enthusiastically describing how he saw another officer stomp on a suspect’s leg in custody.
The officer was filmed laughing and saying he had offered to make a statement claiming the suspect had kicked the sergeant first. It is not clear from CCTV footage seen by the whether that was the case.
James Berry KC, bringing the case for the Met, said the Panorama programme showed Mr Borg “revelled in the use of force on detainees” and made a “number of discriminatory remarks about Muslims”.
Mr Borg denied he was a racist and all the allegations of gross misconduct against him, but admitted he made the comments in the programme and argued he had “been groomed over a series of months to get the undercover report”.
He faced a total of eight allegations, of which five were found proven as gross misconduct by the panel.
Chair Cdr Jason Prins described Mr Borg’s conduct as a “disgrace”, adding: “He alone was responsible for the comments and it was or must have been obvious to him his comments were abhorrent.
“The comments caused significant harm to the reputation of the Metropolitan Police and public confidence in policing more generally.”
Seven more officers are to face misconduct hearings over the next week, the Met said.