Katie Price has broken her silence after eight serving and former Metropolitan Police officers were found guilty of gross misconduct for sharing discriminatory and offensive messages, including jokes about her disabled son Harvey. The officers, seven men and one woman, sent sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and disablist comments in a WhatsApp group called 'Secret Squirrel S**t' between May 2016 and June 2018.
Legal chairman Christopher McKay ruled on Thursday that each officer had committed gross misconduct, both for their own messages and for failing to challenge or report the conduct of others. The hearing at Palestra House in Southwark, central London, heard that the messages included derogatory remarks about 20-year-old Harvey, who has Prader-Willi syndrome and autism, and about a junior female officer.
Speaking on 5 News with Harvey by her side, Katie said she was 'absolutely over the moon' with the verdict. '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 said. She described the messages as 'beyond what you could ever imagine how evil and how spiteful people can actually be' and said 'Harvey doesn’t deserve this, no one does'.
When asked how the mockery made him feel, Harvey replied: 'Angry and sad'. Katie said she hopes the officers 'feel ashamed' and 'are embarrassed'. She added: '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.'
One of the messages, posted by an officer known as Officer B, included an edited photograph of Harvey with a caption mocking his disability and race. Mr McKay said the post was a 'significant breach of the standard of equality and diversity' and constituted gross misconduct. The most senior-ranking officer in the group, Luke Thomas, was found to be one of the most active participants, mocking Harvey's weight and making offensive comments about a colleague.
