Jail for Met pair who shared rape messages with Couzens
TWO Scotland Yard officers who shared rape messages with Wayne Couzens before he killed Sarah Everard were handed jail sentences last night.
Firearms officer Jonathon Cobban, 35, and former PC Joel Borders, 46, swapped ‘grossly offensive’ sexist and racist messages about rape, Tasering children and animals, and shooting people with Down’s Syndrome.
The pair were in a WhatsApp group with Couzens, the former Met officer jailed for life last year for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah.
The messages between April and August 2019 were only uncovered when Couzens was arrested and his phone was examined.
It revealed discussions about raping and beating a female officer, sexually assaulting domestic abuse victims and racist comments about areas of London.
Yesterday Judge Sarah Turnock told the pair they had brought shame on their profession and failed to express any proper remorse.
‘There can be no doubt the distribution of these messages will have caused harm not only to the persons to whom these messages relate to, but also to members of the wider public and significant harm to the police force of England and Wales,’ she said.
‘This sort of banter does perpetuate a culture of prejudice towards more of our most vulnerable members of society. It is the covert nature of these comments which makes the prejudice so difficult to address in the police force.’
She told Westminster Magistrates Court the duo were ‘indignant’ that their secret messages had been discovered and failed to understand their jokes ‘victim blamed’ and damaged public trust.
Both were sentenced to 12 weeks custody, but she delayed the imposition of the sentence pending an appeal the officers have launched against the convictions.
The judge said: ‘It is clear that both defendants feel as though they have been scapegoated and neither have shown understanding of the seriously damaging impact of their conduct or the fact that they knew their behaviour was offensive.
‘I can honestly not think of more grossly offensive messages that Mr Cobban and Mr Borders were responsible for. Their comments cover the full range of prejudiced views – racism, misogyny, ableism and homophobia.’
Nicholas Yeo, representing the pair, claimed they deeply regretted their behaviour.
He added that no one in the group had objected at the time: ‘Whilst contributing to accepting this
‘Both feel they’ve been scapegoated’
behaviour [through their messages], one might think it was also normalised for them.’
During the case it emerged that Cobban had been a ‘race and diversity custodian’ for Civil Nuclear Constabulary before he joined Scotland Yard.
The 35- year- old described his duties as ‘p***y patrol’ and referred to parts of London as resembling ‘a Dulux colour code’.
In one exchange Borders said he couldn’t wait to be a firearms officers so he could shoot people, including those with Down’s Syndrome, saying: ‘I can’t wait to get on guns so I can shoot some **** in the face’.
Cobban replied: ‘Me too. I want to Taser a cat and a dog to see which reacts better. I think the cat will get more p***** off and the dog will s*** it. I wanna test this theory. Same with children. Zap zap you little f******.’
When the scandal emerged, Borders said it had been ‘blown out of proportion’ and accused prosecutors of trying to ‘criminalise a police officer.’ But he was convicted of five counts of sending by public communication network of an offensive matter.
Cobban was also found guilty of three similar counts. A third officer in the group, William Neville, 34, was acquitted. The defendants were granted bail yesterday ahead of a High Court appeal against their conviction.
Commander Jon Savell, from the Met Police’s Professionalism, said: ‘I speak for all of the Met when I say I’m appalled at the disgusting messages. I am deeply sorry these officers have let down the public, and their Met colleagues, with their vile language and behaviour.’
A total of six officers now face misconduct proceedings including Cobban, Borders and Neville.
The other three in the group, who were not subject to criminal proceedings, are officers from the Met, Norfolk Constabulary the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.