Chairman of Met black officers’ group guilty of gross misconduct following involvement with ‘racist and sexist’ messages in WhatsApp chat
The head of the Metropolitan Black Police Association (MBPA) has been sacked after a misconduct panel found he exchanged racist and sexist messages in a WhatsApp chat.
Inspector Charles Ehikioya, 58, who served as full-time chairman of the MBPA, was dismissed without notice following a hearing at Palestra House in London on Friday.
The panel, led by Commander Jason Prins, found Ehikioya had committed gross misconduct over more than 7,000 messages exchanged with former officer Carlo Francisco between 2017 and 2020.
The messages included racist content about Chinese people, jokes about disabled people, and inappropriate comments about Muslims.
Among the offensive content was an image of Hugh Hefner with a message mocking Muslims about “72 virgins”, the hearing was told. The messages included racist videos mocking Chinese people, including one with an overdubbed accent making comments about coronavirus.
The chat contained jokes about sex with a girl with Down’s syndrome and mockery of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s car crash. A video featuring a child with a naked bottom was also shared in the chat, according to James Berry, representing the Met.
On April 1, 2019, Ehikioya warned Francisco to “stop sending or receiving these silly porns”, saying he could get into trouble.
Commander Prins said the panel “found that Inspector Ehikioya has engaged in racist, sexist, misogynistic and otherwise inappropriate behaviour.”
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The panel found his defence of the allegations to be “fanciful” and “far-fetched”.
“The panel found that the messages sent by Inspector Ehikioya or received by him, which he failed to challenge or report, deeply damage public confidence in the police service,” Commander Prins said.
The panel ruled that Ehikioya had breached standards of professional behaviour in respect of equality and diversity, discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct. His actions were deemed “so serious as to potentially justify dismissal”.
Ehikioya denied all allegations, claiming they were fabricated or falsely attributed to him because of his race and his position as MBPA chair. The panel heard that more than 357,000 WhatsApp messages had been deleted from Ehikioya’s phone after it was seized by police in October 2021.
In a statement after the hearing, Ehikioya said he would “explore every available option to challenge this dismissal” and called the decision a “personal attack”.
He said he “categorically” denies the allegations and was “dismayed” by the dismissal after “three decades of dedicated policing service”.
Francisco was separately found to have committed gross misconduct in 2023 over messages in a different WhatsApp group called “Secret Squirrel S***”, along with seven other officers. In that group, Ehikioya was himself the subject of racist messages from colleagues, including references to chains, wicker baskets and cotton-picking.
Nicholas Yeo, representing Ehikioya, argued that Francisco was “part of a vile, racist group that wanted to do the officer great harm for no reason other than his race”.
Francisco was dismissed from the force in July 2022 for an unrelated matter involving “discreditable conduct”.