Dead Gwent officers colleagues under investigation.
Gwent Police is being investigated by another police force following claims of misogyny, racism and homophobia.
A phone owned by a former Gwent Police officer was found to contain offensive message exchanges between him and former colleagues.
The content was discovered on a phone belonging to Ricky Jones, by his daughter, after his death in January 2020.
Messages on the phone show serving and retired officers discussing sexual harassment of junior female colleagues, making racist remarks, homophobic jibes and officers offering to illegally hide mone
Gwent Police’s Chief Constable Pam Kelly said that Wiltshire Police is conducting an independent investigation into what she called a ‘toxic culture’.
In a statement Ms Kelly said: ‘The content we have been made aware of is abhorrent and any officers identified by the investigation as having breached either professional standards or the criminal threshold will be held accountable.
‘The content shared with us paints a picture of a toxic culture which does not represent the majority of our service.
We have also made it clear that those who do not uphold these standards have no place in Gwent police – or in policing.’
The force, which covers Newport and Gwent, has been at the centre of allegations about behaviour within its ranks for a number of years.
In September three senior members of Gwent Police were found to have committed behaviour amounting to gross misconduct.
Former Gwent Police chief superintendent Mark Warrender was found to have committed gross misconduct by ‘inappropriate touching’ while he and two senior colleagues were found to have held an ‘inappropriate conversation’ with a more junior member of staff as a police social event and ‘failed to challenge and report’ the alleged improper behaviour of others in that conversation.
The investigation published in the Sunday Times looked at messages between Mr Jones, who had spent 26 years as a police officer before he retired, and unnamed colleagues.
One exchange took place between Mr Jones and a retired sergeant, who has not been named.
He is said to have messaged Mr Jones: ‘He has been shagging on duty and it’s been recorded on his tetra (police radio) mate,’ he wrote.
They added: ‘Didn’t he learn anything from me at all?? I thought I taught him well and how not to get caught.’
The same officer sent a picture of Grenfell Tower on fire, titled ‘The Great Muslim Bakeoff’, and in May 2019, he sent a racist image about the new royal baby.
In a Facebook messenger exchange between the two, the officer offers to help Mr Jones in hiding money from his wife if they divorced saying he had ‘done the same in the past for a Gwent police chief.’
In December 2019, he said: ‘If you need to hide some money, I will look after it or open an account for you in my name if you want. I did it for (name of senior Gwent Police office).’ This is classed as fraud and can be punishable by a prison sentence.
In a group chat involving a number of officers on Mr Jones’s phone, homophobic and racist ‘banter’ between members was often exchanged. The same officer is said to have sent a message which said: ‘Overloaded your computer with gay porn did you mate?’
Another officer replied: ‘I don’t know why you keep sending it to me. I told you I’m not into all that.’ The first officer then sent a meme of Mr Chow, an Asian character from The Hangover, which said: ‘So long, gay boys’.
Exchanges in the group chat also included officers calling each other ‘poofs’ and ‘PC closet.’ One of the members in the Whatsapp group referred to Asian people as ‘slopes’.
A spokeswoman for Wiltshire Police said: ‘We can confirm this investigation is ongoing and it would, therefore, be inappropriate to comment further at this time.’
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