Two met police officers sentenced to three months in jail for sharing an offensive message on a WhatsApp group, claimed they were victims.
Pc Jonathon Cobban, 35, and former Pc Joel Borders, 46, colleagues of Wayne Couzens, the officer who murdered Sarah Everard, said they were victims of cancel culture because of the action of the associate.
The duo was sentenced after they shared racist, misogynistic, and homophobic ableist messages in a WhatsApp group, Bottle and Stoppers.
The officers committed the crime before their colleague, Wayne, killed Sarah Everard.
The lawyer, Nicholas Yeo, claimed the duo’s reputation is tarnished because they are linked to Mr. Couzens, 49, adding that their names have become “toxic.”
He said, “If they had committed robbery or GBH, they would find it easier to find a job than being linked to the furore of Mr. Couzens.”
“They were in no better position than anyone else to know what he would go on and do.”
Borders, through his lawyer, “deeply regret that innocent people have been affected by what he said, and he has done damage to the force, and everyone’s job is made harder.”
“Cobban accepted the messages were unacceptable, particularly because he is a police officer… he wanted to be eaten alive when he read them [the messages]; they made him feel sick, utterly ashamed and embarrassed,” he added.
The court heard that the two officers would never be officers again after the court heard how they joked about raping female officers, tasering children, making a mockery of disabled people, displayed racist views in 2019.
The officers’ crimes came to light after their colleague, Mr. Couzens, raped and murdered 33-year-old Sarah Everard in March 2021.
The court found Cobban guilty of three counts of sharing grossly offensive messages on public groups, and his colleague, Borders, was guilty of five charges after a trial at Westminster Magistrates Court.
The judge, Sarah Turnock, sentenced both officers to three months on Wednesday, describing the action of the officers as “grossly offensive messages.”
Judge Turnock added, “They encapsulated the full range of prejudiced views, racism, misogyny, ableism
and homophobia.”
“There was no intention on the part of the defendants to cause any harm to the persons to whom these messages relate or the minor groups of society who are undoubtedly affected by these messages.”
“The persons to whom these messages relate will undoubtedly have caused great distress by knowing police officers find it funny to joke about them in such a deeply offensive manner.”
“Significant harm has undoubtedly been caused to public confidence in policing as a result of these offences.”
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