Met Police officer sacked after bombarding ex with racist, homophobic deportation threats
Police were called at around 4.20am on Sunday, 12 February to reports of a homophobic assault on Clapham High Street. (AFP via Getty/Tolga Akmen)
A Metropolitan (Met) police officer, Mohammed Afzal, swamped his ex-partner with racist and homophobic texts, including threats that he would be deported if they broke up, a tribunal has heard.
A recent report showed hundreds of members of the Metropolitan Police Service should have been sacked following claims of homophobia, sexual misconduct, misogyny and racism being mishandled.
The former officer, who would have been sacked if he hadn’t quit after his messages were exposed, used three different mobiles and ten SIM cards to contact his ex.
After his relationship ended in October 2020 Afzal sent 86 messages to his ex.
Among the intimidating texts, Afzal told his ex “u belong tied up in the jungle”, called him a “cheater and prostitute”, and claimed that he would be sent back to Pakistan if the relationship didn’t work.
“I will tell home office everything,” he wrote in another threatening message.
A panel concluded the messages were sent within the context of their relationship breakdown, with certain text clearly being sent by Afzal.
‘Overtly discriminatory’
The panel concluded that the messages were “overtly discriminatory towards someone’s sexuality, religion, ethnicity and nationality and were so vile that” the public couldn’t “be confident they would be treated fairly” if in the former officer’s care.
“The ex-partner was vulnerable, he was brought into the UK by former PC Afzal and his immigration status depended on their staying together, as it was described as a marriage visa.
“From some of the messages, it was clear that immigration was used as a lever within the relationship.”
The panel highlighted that discrimination is never acceptable and said “it is imperative that policing makes it clear that such conduct is never unacceptable”.
They noted that Afzal failed to maintain professional standards on and off duty.
Gross misconduct
Following the messages being exposed Afzal resigned from his role as a Met police officer, but he initially claimed his ex was controlling and had written the messages himself to fake evidence against him, the Evening Standard reported.
Regardless of his claims, a misconduct panel at Scotland Yard found Afzal guilty of gross misconduct, meaning he would have been sacked if he was still a serving officer.
The tribunal heard that after his arrest Afzal was found to have either Asperger’s Syndrome or be on the autism spectrum, and due to this, he was declared to be unsuitable to return to any frontline policing.
