Met officer filmed joking about rape and racism

A police misconduct hearing has been told jokes made about rape and sexual assault by a former Met officer caught on hidden camera were "ill‑conceived".

Ex-police constable Brian Sharkey, who retired last May, made comments caught on undercover footage which aired in a BBC Panorama documentary in October.

The officer, based at Charing Cross police station, was also recorded belittling claims of racial bias, making sexual innuendos and talking about disposing of evidence.

Cecily White, for the Met Police, told the tribunal it was "clear" Sharkey was making a joke - but such jokes could lead to public concern about police not taking such allegations seriously.

She added: "It might be said, 'well police officers are allowed to make jokes just like anyone else'.

"It will be suggested that this was just banter, just idle chit chat. But the reason it matters, is that sexual assault and rape are of course very serious allegations.

"They are allegations which of course come to the door of the police, very sadly, and there is public concern about police officers not taking such allegations seriously."

She said that for an officer to make a joke about allegations of sexual assault or rape, especially to other colleagues, "was capable of undermining public trust".

White said there was a danger such jokes could make people think police officers do not think such allegations are particularly serious.

"They are just a joke, just a laughing matter. It is capable of giving the impression that they won't be taken seriously."

White said Sharkey claimed his words had been taken out of context, but he accepted that his "ill-conceived joke" was inappropriate.

When discussing a sexual offence at a pub with colleagues after a shift in January last year, footage shown to the hearing showed Sharkey saying people accused of offences "might as well do it".

"If you go down for a sexual assault you might as well go down for rape."

He added: "Please, that's a joke. I challenge myself on that."

He then turned to the undercover journalist and said: "That was wrong, I do apologise."

He said he did not mean any disrespect and that he corrected himself, the tribunal heard.

In August 2024, Sharkey was filmed on a break during a night shift telling the undercover reporter : "You stop a toerag because he is up to no good, you don't find anything on him 'well you're just stopping me because I'm black or you're just stopping me because I'm this or you're just stopping me because I'm that'."

White argued the then-officer was treating claims of racial bias as "spurious excuses".

"The use of stop and search powers particularly against black and minority communities is a legitimate matter of public concern as this officer was or should have been aware," the lawyer for the Met Police said.

She continued: "He should have been aware that a black person who is searched, and who is found to be in possession of nothing of concern, who then has a concern about being searched because he is black or because she is black, that might not be a spurious excuse, that might be a legitimate concern."

Sharkey denied his comments amounted to a breach of the standards of professional behaviour in respect of authority, respect and courtesy, discreditable conduct and equality and diversity.

On 1 October last year Panorama aired undercover footage after which seven other police officers were sacked.

PCs Sean Park, Jason Sinclair-Birt, Martin Borg, Philip Neilson, and Sgts Lawrence Hume, Clayton Robinson and Joe McIlvenny were dismissed without notice in separate hearings after it was found they had committed gross misconduct.

Sharkey's misconduct hearing continues.

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