Katie Price speaks out as Met Police guilty of misconduct amid Harvey mockery
Katie Price has broken her silence after eight serving and former Metropolitan Police officers have been found guilty of 'gross misconduct' over 'discriminatory and offensive' messages they shared, including some which made fun of her disabled son, Harvey Price.
The officers – including seven men and one woman – were found to have sent sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and disablist comments in a WhatsApp group called 'Secret Squirrel S**t' between May 17 2016 and June 26 2018.
Legal chairman Christopher McKay described gross misconduct as a 'breach of the standards of professional behaviour that is so serious as to justify dismissal', during the fifth day of the hearing at Palestra House in Southwark, central London, on Thursday.
He found each former and serving officer to have committed gross misconduct over their own messages, as well as by 'failing to challenge or report' the conduct of others in the group.
Katie has broken her silence after the verdict today (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
The Met officers mocked Harvey in the Whatsapp messages (katieprice/Instagram)The hearing concerned former sergeant Luke Thomas, former acting sergeant Luke Allen, former Pc Kelsey Buchan, former Pc Carlo Francisco, former Pc Lee South, former Pc Darren Jenner, Pc Glynn Rees, and Officer B, who has been granted anonymity.
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Following the verdict, former glamour model Katie, 44, has now spoken out as she appeared on 5 News to discuss the verdict.
The mum-of-five sat with her son by her side and said she was “absolutely over the moon,“ with the verdict and added: “It’s about time justice has been done. Not only that they are professionals that we trust, that we should trust who have done this… and now an example is going to be put out there and something is going to be done.“
She added: “What I've actually seen and read what these police officers have said it's beyond, like beyond, what you could ever imagine how evil and how spiteful people can actually be, and how they even think it's funny. It's actually disgusting… Harvey doesn’t deserve this, no one does.“
When asked by Katie how it made him feel when people were horrible to him, Harvey said: “Angry and sad”.
During the interview, Katie said she hopes the police officers 'feel ashamed' and are 'embarrassed'.
Katie says she hopes they 'feel ashamed' (Instagram/ @katieprice)“I hope they're embarrassed to know what their family are going through and I hope… all their names and their mug shots come out because I would like to see their faces and they should be named and shamed,“ she said.
The star hopes they will 'never serve' in the force again.
“And if they ever get any other job that it goes on their CV because I'll tell you what, there won't be a lot of people who want to employ them after this. Would you want to employ someone when you know they do stuff like this? Because I know I wouldn't. So it will affect them for the rest of their life. And I hope it does because they deserve that, they’re disgusting,“ Katie continued.
The messages sent around by the eight Met officers included derogatory comments about 20-year-old Mr Price, who suffers from Prader–Willi syndrome and autism, and about a junior female officer, known in the hearings as Officer A.
Mr McKay said Officer B, who can be named at the end of proceedings, posted an edited photograph of Mr Price in the chat with the caption: “You’ve heard of elf on a shelf, now get ready for Harvey Price eating Uncle Ben’s basmati rice after trying to read three blind mice on spice.”
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The messages sent around by the officers mocked Harvey's disabilitiesMr McKay said: “The rhyme has a racist tone and refers to his disability – he is partially sighted.
“There is no need to refer to Uncle Ben’s rice unless pointing to the racial origins of Uncle Ben and Harvey Price being similar.
“The words ‘trying to read’ also highlight his disability.”
Mr McKay said the post was a “significant breach of the standard of equality and diversity”, “inappropriate and offensive” to Mr Price, and constitutes “gross misconduct”.
The panel found the most senior-ranking officer in the group, Mr Thomas, “appears to have been one of the most active participants” in the WhatsApp group.
Harvey is Katie's eldest child (Katie Price/Instagram)
Katie said she felt 'sick' after learning of the vile messages (David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock for NTA)Mr Thomas mocked Mr Price’s weight in some messages, called Officer A “f****** ugly”, and joked that he should name his dog “Auschwitz”, “Adolf” or “Fred” or “Ian” after “my two favourite child sex killers”.
Mr McKay said: “Given his supervisory role as a sergeant, he failed to adequately supervise or guide his team in respect of conduct.
“His failings are extremely serious. He could and should have closed the WhatsApp group as soon as the highly inappropriate nature of the messages became apparent.
“Instead he became one of its main contributors. This was undoubtedly gross misconduct.”
Katie previously told The Mirror that she felt 'betrayed' over the Met Police officers' behaviour.
Katie says she felt betrayed by the Met Police (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Katie said she felt 'sick' after discovering what was said about her son who lives with a number of disabilities (Katie Price/Instagram)At the time, she said: “These are the people who are supposed to be protecting us, people we are supposed to trust.
“It’s pure betrayal. I was in shock at first, then I felt sick, heartbroken and angry.”
The TV star called for a full investigation and probe into the incident, saying: “It’s not enough for these people to just lose their jobs if found guilty.
“If this has happened to a vulnerable adult like Harvey, it will be happening to others.”
Katie Price with her eldest son Harvey who has a condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome (BBC/Minnow Films/Richard Ansett)Back in February, Katie published a letter from the Met Police telling her officers are facing misconduct proceedings over alleged involvement in a WhatsApp group that targeted her disabled son Harvey.
At the time, the mum-of-five wrote: “It's disgusting that police officers from here have felt the need to laugh and use disgusting content on Harvey by creating a WhatsApp group.
“I would attend this court day but I'm away. They need to be named, shamed and exposed.“
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