A South African officer in a toxic specialist police unit became so caught up in the racist culture that he failed to say anything when his best friend was racially abused, a disciplinary hearing was told today.
PC Craig Bannerman was said to be extremely close to the only black officer in the squad, Detective Constable Solomon Koranteng, who was the target of numerous offensive comments.
But when a colleague began singing the Bob Marley song Buffalo Soldier at DC Koranteng and telling him he had been flown from Africa in a crate, PC Bannerman said nothing.
Six officers at Hampshire Constabulary s Serious Organised Crime Unit (Socu) were all found guilty of gross misconduct after they were recorded using racist, sexist and homophobic language.
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Detective Inspector Timothy Ireson (Credit: Solent News and Photo Agency) MEMBERS of police unit branded as “toxic” have been found guilty of gross misconduct after ‘offensive and disrespectful’ conversations were covertly recorders. The Northern Serious Organised Crime Unit s (SOCU) office, in Basingstoke, was bugged over a 24-day period in 2018 when homophobic, racist and sexist remarks were recorded. Six members have now been found guilty of gross misconduct following a lengthy misconduct hearing. Retired Detective Inspector Tim Ireson, Detective Sergeant Oliver Lage, Detective Sergeant Gregory Willcox, former PC Craig Bannerman, trainee Detective Constable Andrew Ferguson and PC James Oldfield are now facing sanctions.
During their decades of police service, the Basingstoke Six must have heard every excuse in the book from the many criminals they collared.
So when they found themselves standing in the dock, so to speak, and asked to account for behaviour that was racist, sexist and homophobic, the expectations for their explanations were set quite high. Sadly, to a man, they disappointed.
PC Craig Bannerman, for example, was accused of failing to challenge colleagues when they made foul and degrading references to women. The reason? A hearing problem which the officer claimed meant he must have missed the offensive slurs being bandied about. Then there was PC James Oldfield, who spoke about ‘mongs’, ‘bummers’ and ‘sluts’ – and even joked about migrants having a long swim and drowning in the sea.