A serving Metropolitan Police officer and a former colleague have been found guilty of sending grossly offensive misogynistic and racist messages in a WhatsApp group with Sarah Everard’s killer.
Met constables William Neville, 34, and Jonathon Cobban, 35, and former PC Joel Borders, 45, were members of the chat called “Bottle and Stoppers” along with Wayne Couzens.
Neville was cleared of sending grossly offensive messages but his two colleagues were convicted on Wednesday following a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July.
The court heard that on 5 April 2019, Cobban and Borders swapped comments about tasering children, animals and “downys”, a term used by Borders that the prosecution argued referred to people with Down’s syndrome.
Before delivering a judgment on Wednesday, Judge Sarah Turnock said it was “abhorrent” that Borders “demonstrates an ablest attitude by then adding a disabled person to Cobban’s disgusting list of victims”.
“I can honestly say that I consider it to be sickening to think of a police officer joking about using firearms in this way,” she added.
