Gross misconduct proven against current and former Greater Manchester Police officers over inappropriate WhatsApp messages

Six Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers have had gross misconduct or misconduct found proven following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into racist, ableist and other offensive messages which were shared by officers in a WhatsApp group.

Following our investigation, an independently chaired panel on Wednesday 5 April found gross misconduct proven against PC Rebekah Kelly, while former PC Ashley Feest and PC Graham Atkinson admitted breaching the standards of behaviour, also at the level of gross misconduct.

The standards breached by PC Kelly were discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct. The standards breached by former PC Feest and PC Atkinson were respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct.

The panel ruled that former PC Feest would have been dismissed without notice, had he not already resigned, and PC Kelly has been dismissed without notice. They will both be added onto the College of Policing’s barred list, which prohibits them from working within policing. PC Atkinson received a final written warning.

The hearing follows our independent investigation into the conduct of nine officers, which came to light as part of evidence gathered for a separate IOPC investigation.

As part of the previous investigation, former PC Aaron Jones’ personal mobile phone was examined. This led to the identification of a WhatsApp group with the other officers titled 'The Dispensables'.

During our investigation into the officers’ communication, we analysed messages that referenced drug use and found some containing derogatory comments which did not appear to be challenged by any of the officers within the group.

Examples included racist comments about people attending a festival celebrating Eid in Manchester; ableist comments about people with autism; and photos shared of medication which appeared to be steroids.

IOPC Regional Director Catherine Bates said: “The messages in this WhatsApp group were inexcusable and abhorrent. Messages sent via WhatsApp and on any form of social media cannot be a hiding place for officers with these types of views.

“Behaviour of this nature seriously undermines public confidence in policing. It is part of our role, and for police forces themselves, to ensure that it is rooted out and those responsible are held to account for their actions.

“The outcome sends a clear message that the use and failure to challenge offensive language is wholly unacceptable.”

Our separate investigation into former PC Jones looked allegations he had offered to supply steroids in January 2019. He was dismissed in December 2022 following a misconduct hearing organised by the force.

Prior to the hearing, the former GMP officer was sentenced to a 12-month community order and 80 hours unpaid work in June 2022 after admitting two counts of offering to supply Class C drugs.

As part of our investigation into the WhatsApp messages, two other officers were found to have a case to answer for misconduct and the force arranged misconduct meetings in August 2022.

One was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to authority, respect and courtesy; conduct; equality and diversity; and challenging and reporting improper conduct. They were given a written warning. The other officer was found to have failed to challenge or report improper conduct and received management advice.

We also investigated the conduct of three other officers, two in relation to allegations they failed to challenge or report improper conduct and one in relation to an allegation of drug use. We found they had no case to answer.