Met fights to sack reinstated high-profile black officer

SCOTLAND YARD is trying to sack the Met’s most high-profile female black officer for a second time over a Whatsapp message from her sister.

The Met has started legal proceedings to dismiss Supt Robyn Williams after she successfully appealed against her sacking for “discreditable conduct”.

Ms Williams was sentenced to community service for having a clip from a child abuse video on her phone that had been sent to her by her sister. She was dismissed by the Met four months later but successfully appealed the decision.

Scotland Yard’s latest move raises the prospect of a further lengthy and bitter courtroom battle between one of Britain’s most senior black policewomen and a force striving to bolster confidence in ethnic minority communities.

Ms Williams was convicted in November 2019 at the Old Bailey of possession of an indecent image – a 54-second child abuse video sent via Whatsapp to her smartphone, unsolicited, by her sister. She was ordered to complete 200 hours’ unpaid work and register for five years as a sex offender, even though the judge accepted there had been no sexual motive. Her conviction was later upheld by the Court of Appeal.

In March 2020, Williams was sacked following an internal disciplinary hearing; it found that her actions had amounted to “gross misconduct”.

But Williams took her case to the Police Appeals Tribunal (PAT) – and won. Now, however, the Met confirmed yesterday that it was seeking a judicial review because of the “failure by the PAT to make a proper assessment of the seriousness” of her conviction.