Met Police officer caught on camera making ‘floridly racist’ comments sacked
A Metropolitan Police officer working at Charing Cross police station has been sacked after he was secretly filmed making “deeply racist” comments and “glorifying the inappropriate use of force”.
Damning footage collected secretly for the BBC Panorama documentary appears to show PC Philip Neilson suggesting an immigrant whose visa had expired should be shot. “Either put a bullet in his head or deport him,” he said while off duty, a hearing was heard in south London on Thursday.
PC Neilson; violated standards of professional conduct in terms of authority, respect and courtesy; disreputable behavior; Equality and diversity were discussed at the hearing.
Hearing chairman Commander Jason Prins said he was satisfied the breaches of conduct amounted to gross misconduct and Pc Neilson was dismissed without notice.
“It was clear to him, or should have been clear, that the comments made were disgusting,” Mr Prins said. “The officer’s behavior is shameful”
Panorama footage shows the officer drinking in a bar off duty telling undercover reporter Rory Bibb that Algerians and Somalis are “scum” and referring to the UK being invaded by immigrants.
The film also revealed police officers making sexually explicit comments about women, ignoring a rape complaint, making anti-Muslim statements and appearing to boast about excessive use of force.
The first allegation was made by James Berry KC, on behalf of the relevant authority, who said the program showed Pc Neilson giving a speech outside Charing Cross police station in which he said a young man referred to as Mr X had taken him into custody.
Mr Berry added that the undercover reporter was told Pc Neilson had been “giving a sports massage” before joining police and was in “pressure points” while in the van to be taken into custody.
Mr Berry said the footage later showed him going into further detail in the pub, saying: “He said he was applying pressure points to Mr X for the whole journey… After 20 seconds you become immune to it by switching legs.”
However, the police officer denied any inappropriate force was used on the detainee and said he had been assaulted.
Mr Berry added that the officer said the pressure point comments were “a misguided attempt at bullying”.
He said: “He was showing off with an exaggerated story about the use of force.
“He was praising the inappropriate use of force on a restrained detainee, whether or not the force was actually used.”
Mr Berry added that Pc Neilson was “laughing and grinning throughout”.
The second claim was that the officer described Somalis as “scum” and referred to the UK being invaded by immigrants; Mr Berry said they were “deeply racist”.
The third allegation involves Panorama footage showing Pc Neilson off-duty, referring to an immigrant whose visa had expired, saying: “Put a bullet in his head or deport him.
“And those who fuck women, those who rape women, you do your dick and let them bleed.”
The officer accepted that the remarks were inappropriate and were made because he was drunk after drinking eight or nine pints of Guinness.
Mr Berry said comments suggesting “uncensored and illegal violence” should be used were “disgusting”.
Pc Neilson accepts the comments were made but says it was merely abuse, Chris Brinsley said on his behalf.
The officer who testified at the hearing was asked whether he believed undercover reporting violated human rights. He replied: “I… he was the one who started the conversations.”
When asked what he would say about his case that the relevant authority was racist, he said: “I’m not.”
Mr Brinsley said it was “an extraordinary case of an undercover journalist infiltrating the police”.
In another conversation captured on BBC footage, PC Martin Borg boasted about a colleague stepping on a prisoner’s leg and laughed at the suspect screaming. It was also revealed that he discussed falsifying the testimony of a witness regarding the incident.
The scandal is the second to hit a central London police station in 2022 after a series of shocking messages were revealed to have been sent to each other by officers at the same police station.
Officers at Charing Cross were found by the IOPC to have joked about rape and domestic violence and made racist comments in messages sent by officers between 2016 and 2018.
