Two Metropolitan Police officers who worked in the same armed unit as Wayne Couzens are facing the sack for allegedly exchanging racist and offensive messages.
PCs Thomas Murray and Colin Stevens were attached to the troubled Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command.
Murray is accused of sending a voice message littered with numerous four-letter words and racially discriminatory remarks to a colleague attending a positive action seminar held via Microsoft Teams.
A notice of his gross misconduct hearing to be held on June 3 states: “The colleague’s mic was unmuted at the time and the voice message was heard over the audio.”
Murray - who has since left the PaDP unit - did not himself attend the virtual meeting on September 8, 2022.
Separately, PC Colin Stevens is alleged to have exchanged texts with an unknown officer that “included themes of a racist, sexist, misogynist and generally inappropriate and offensive nature” between 2013 and 2015. He is due to attend a disciplinary panel on May 10.
Both face allegations that their behaviour breached professional standards in respect of authority, respect and courtesy, and equality and diversity.
Stevens faces one count of failing to challenge or report improper conduct.
Their actions, if proven, amount to gross misconduct and is so serious as to justify dismissal, the Met said.
The force was approached for further comment.
The troubled elite squad in which Sarah Everard’s murderer Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick served has seen a third of its staff cleared out in a major overhaul.
Around 1,000 officers, three-quarters of whom are armed, guard sites including the Houses of Parliament and embassies in London.
It was singled out in a damning review by Baroness Louise Casey in 2022, which painted a bleak picture of a male-heavy team where offensive comments were seen as banter and supervision was minimal.
Last year, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said he hoped that more than two-thirds of the staff in PaDP will be new by 2025.
At the time, 49 officers were accused of breaching standards – 12 for misconduct, 33 for gross misconduct and four public complaints.
Twenty-four officers were subject to restrictions, since October 2021 11 have been suspended, and more than 30 have had their firearms licences removed.
Mr Taylor said unhealthy work cultures had developed in the unit, partly due to a lack of diversity, poor leadership and a sense of disconnection from the rest of the force.
He said: “The officers need to be better supervised, they need to be better trained, and they need to be better equipped.”
