A Metropolitan police officer has been dismissed for making racist and homophobic comments.
PC Gus Mirams, who was part of the Met’s Central West unit across the boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea, made the comments in front of two members of the public as well as a security guard back in July 2019, according to a force misconduct hearing.
The officer had been placed on restricted duties at the time, and had breached restrictions by sitting in the public gallery at an unrelated misconduct hearing, the panel heard. He allegedly made two “homophobic and racially offensive comments” at the hearing.
A Met misconduct panel heard allegations that PC Mirams had also posted “offensive comments” on social media as it was told that in 2018 he had engaged in Facebook posts linked to the far-right Britain First group, including news stories involving police officers attending Pride events.
The panel found his actions amounted to gross misconduct and he was dismissed without notice. The panel also ruled that his behaviour was in breach of equality and diversity standards which “could reasonably be perceived to be abusive, oppressive, victimising or offensive and did not treat certain communities with fairness, respect and impartiality”.
This comes after figures obtained by The Times suggested that 93 per cent of racism complaints made against Metropolitan Police officers and staff haven’t resulted in further action being taken. It was also reported that despite the force receiving 2,825 complaints in the past five years, only 70 of those were acted on and resulted in formal action against an officer.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said, “The Met takes all allegations of a racist nature extremely seriously and is clear racism has no place within the organisation. Policing is complex and challenging and we strive to ensure we are fair and just.”