Revealed: Content of vile message ‘cop sent’ from Sarah crime scene
Image ‘shared with 7 officers’ is sick parody of the Highway Code
THE sickening message allegedly sent by a rookie policeman joking about Sarah Everard’s murder emerged yesterday.
The probationary officer, aged around 22, is said to have sent the ‘meme’ – a shared joke image – to seven colleagues as he manned a cordon in woods near Ashford, Kent, where the 33-year-old’s body was found.
It shows a policeman going through six stages from abduction to murder in a pastiche of the Highway Code.
In one image it shows the officer directing traffic holding a hand up to say ‘Stop single girl’. He then gives various signals for different sickening actions, culminating in the murder and disposal of a body.
Yesterday there were calls for the officer who allegedly sent the appalling Whats-App message to be sacked. Miss Everard’s family are already reeling from the arrest of Metropolitan Police firearms officer Wayne Couzens, 48, on suspicion of kidnap and murder.
The meme was sent last Thursday a day after Miss Everard’s body was found. She had disappeared from a street in Clapham, south London, as she walked home from a friend’s house on March 3. Horrified police colleagues immediately reported the message to senior officers who referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
The watchdog has launched three probes following an unprecedented seven referrals for alleged blunders regarding the case so far. The rookie officer, who has not been identified, was placed on restricted duties.
Last June, two Met officers were arrested for allegedly sharing selfies on WhatsApp of the bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, while guarding their murder scene in Wembley.
Yesterday their mother, former Chelmsford Archdeacon Wilhelmina Smallman said: ‘All I can say is when you’ve lost your children you think nothing else could possibly happen and then you discover another layer of betrayal and trauma.’
She added: ‘When they [the officers] disclosed that police, whose job it was to protect the forensic area, had taken selfies with our dead children, it just took my grief to another level.
‘I have been haunted by pictures of images I think they took and it has brought on a recurrence of mental health issues. I can’t begin to tell you how much sympathy I have for Sarah’s family. To hear the level of disrespect for their daughter is horrific and it’s another example of the toxicity of the Met Police. Of course there are good policemen out there, but actually, as an institution, there’s misogyny.’
Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: ‘We are never going to tackle violence against women if we have got police officers demonstrating this level of misogyny and hatred towards women. It is sick.’
Sir Peter Fahy, former chief constable of Greater Manchester, told Good Morning Britain: ‘This is obviously another dent to potential confidence in policing but it mirrors my experience that police officers actually are very intolerant of misconduct by their colleagues and when they see things that are unacceptable... they are immediately reporting it and swift action is being taken.’
Met Assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave said: ‘The Metropolitan Police Service expects its officers to behave professionally at all times and this includes how they use social media. I take allegations that any officer or officers have failed to observe these standards very seriously and have referred this matter to the IOPC.’
The development comes after the Met were accused of heavy-handed tactics while arresting women at a vigil to Miss Everard on Saturday.
‘Took my grief to another level’