Police responder to 2017 London Bridge attack sacked for ‘derogatory’ language | Police
A police officer who was among the first to arrive at the 2017 London Bridge terror attack has been dismissed for gross misconduct after using “derogatory” language about Roma, Gypsies and Travelers.
DC Mark Luker, of British Transport Police (BTP), used offensive language in a WhatsApp group where he was with other police officers.
In a WhatsApp conversation on December 31, 2024, about someone winning a bottle of whiskey with the security tag still attached, Luker wrote: “Was this a giveaway on a particular type of site? Lots of mobile type homes? Lots of ‘Dags’.” He then added: “You are MSOC’s pikey liaison.”
The misconduct panel at trial concluded that these were “deliberate messages clearly linking the Irish Traveler community to acts of theft”.
The word “Dags” is believed to refer to a scene in Guy Ritchie’s movie Snatch, in which Brad Pitt plays a Gypsy. In the scene, Stephen Graham’s character has difficulty understanding Pitt’s accent when he says “dogs.” The board found that the word was “derogatory” because it denoted a situation in which a Gypsy character’s accent was “mocked”.
Luker was a member of a WhatsApp group called “Selbie Gumshoes” along with other members of the Major Serious and Organized Crime (MSOC) team.
In another WhatsApp chat on March 17, 2025, Luker wrote: “I’m off to find some scrap metal, lead roofing and wiring” in response to a video of the “Paddy Day parade at Inishbofin” posted by another group member with the message: “It’s just like a Disney World Parade. They know how to put on a show.”
The panel found Luker’s message was “deliberate and discriminatory” because it linked the Gypsy, Roma and Traveler community to theft.
He also used the word “pikey” in the messages he sent on March 27, 2025.
During the trial, the panel heard Luker accepted that the phrase “scrap metal, lead roofing and wiring” was a joke to link the theft to the Irish Traveler community, but said in the messages that he did not mean the word “pikey” to be offensive.
Luker was one of the first responders to the terrorist attack on London Bridge on June 3, 2017. During the panel, Luker was heard saying that one of his coping mechanisms for the day was to use humor.
The panel concluded that DC Luker was not “inherently racist”.
The panel wrote: “As an experienced BTP police officer is used to dealing with a wide range of people, the panel finds that he knew, on the balance of probabilities, that this was a particularly offensive use of language, possibly directed at members of a minority community.”
