Met Police officer’s racist messages were so vile he was jailed | UK News

A serving Metropolitan Police officer sent such horrendously racist messages about his ex’s new partner that a judge jailed him.

Thomas Phillips, 34, had dated partner Samantha Ryan from 2017 to 2021, before they continued to live together at a house they had bought.

Samantha had begun seeing Danny Gobin, also a police officer, whose mum is Irish and dad is Mauritian.

On April 8 of that year, Phillips messaged Ms Ryan on WhatsApp saying ‘he is black, you are a ginger with a nice arse, he is genetically drawn to you’.

On April 20 he referred to her boyfriend as a ‘mongrel spade’ in a message and used the n-word to describe him in another text.

On May 1 Phillips asked Ms Ryan if she would have ‘little afro babies with big noses’, and the court heard eight days later he suggested her new partner was a thief because ‘he is black’.

Mr Gobin said he had become an officer out of revulsion at the racism that he and his family experienced.

He told Westminster Magistrates’ Court Phillips’ comments made him feel ‘sick’ and ‘disgusted’.

He added that the ‘stress and anxiety’ the messages caused him had been ‘immense’ and that he had needed to take time off work at one point.

When Phillips was interviewed by police last year, he denied that he sent the texts and tried to suggest Ms Ryan had written them on his phone and sent them to herself to frame him.

But he ended up pleading guilty to five counts of sending an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message contrary to the Communications Act 2003 in July.

Prosecutor Louise Oakley said the exchanges amounted to a ‘campaign’ which showed ‘determined hostility based on race’.

She added: ‘He describes deliberately sending them to be hurtful.

‘The defendant was a serving police officer at the time of the offending and in our submission he has undermined the confidence the public has in the police.’

Ms Ryan held back tears as she described how she was initially reluctant to report Phillips for fear of being labelled a ‘troublemaker’ at work.

She said this had ‘made her feel like a failure as a police officer and a failure as a person’.

The court also heard that Phillips allegedly subjected Ms Ryan to domestic abuse, becoming ‘arrogant’ and ‘belittling’.

She said she was scared of being ‘punched and kicked’, that he would blame her if he lost his job and that he made repeated suicide threats she claims were to ‘threaten and control’ her.

Phillips’ lawyer Colin Banham said the racist messages did not reflect his client’s real views, arguing that they were only sent because of the breakdown of his relationship with Ms Ryan.

He said Phillips had shown ‘genuine remorse’ and asked for him to be given a community order.

But district judge Louisa Cieciora jailed Phillips, from Croydon in south London, for 71 days.

Speaking directly to him, she said: ‘The offences were motivated by and demonstrated hostility based on race.

‘Although there were only five messages, they were spread out over a period of time that demonstrated they were not simply an emotional outburst but a considered course of conduct.

‘You were a serving police officer at the time, and serving police officers are expected to reflect the values of our society, to protect those who are vulnerable, and not to have or demonstrate bias based on personality characteristics.

‘The probation officer said your language and actions demonstrate you harbour those core beliefs of racial hatred as well as misogyny.

‘I am not persuaded there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and I am satisfied appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody.’

A restraining order also bans the defendant from contacting his victims for two years, apart from through lawyers.

The officer had been suspended from duty while the case was ongoing and is expected to face misconduct proceedings later.

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