Top police officer posts blackface photos online but keeps job
A POLICE inspector posted photos of himself in blackface and joked about groping a nurse on Facebook but kept his job, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Inspector Paul Ayling, of Bedfordshire Police, posted images of himself in blackface at two separate parties on the social media site in 2010 and years later made a series of misogynistic posts.
Remarkably, the racist photos remained on his public profile for 12 years before they were spotted by a disgusted member of the public. The 39-year-old, who has been at the force for 19 years according to his Linkedin profile, also posted in 2016: ‘An accidental boob grab of a nursery nurse while dropping off your daughter is the way to start any day.’
Another post stated: ‘ Dads: They’re like mums only smarter.’
The posts were missed by his force and only came to light when Mark Emsley, a father- of-three from Shefford, Bedfordshire, reported them to the police in September last year.
Inspector Ayling’s conduct was investigated by Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Police. Astonishingly, the investigation found the posts were not ‘ racist by their nature’.
DCI Ben Martin, of Cambridgeshire Police, wrote to Mr Emsley, 51, in January and said: ‘They [the posts] are distasteful and insensitive but I do not consider that they are racist by their nature.
‘They are not, in my mind, the same as the use of racist language or derogatory language towards people of different backgrounds, for example. The posts are also a number of years old.’
Mr Emsley, whose father Clive was a celebrated police historian and criminologist, said the conclusion was outrageous.
He added: ‘How can a force say they are anti-racist then send someone like this out there?’ Bedfordshire Police deputy chief constable Dan Vajzovic said: ‘These posts are abhorrent and completely unacceptable.’
A damning report from the Inspectorate of Constabulary released earlier this month found that across the country thousands of officers who should have failed vetting checks were serving in the police.
‘How can a force say they are anti-racist?’