AN OXFORDSHIRE man, who is a serving Metropolitan Police Officer, is accused of sending 'grossly offensive' messages in a group chat with Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens.
Jonathon Cobban, 35, is charged alongside other serving Met constable William Neville, 34, and former PC Joel Borders, 45, for sending ‘grossly offensive’ messages in the chat called “Bottle and Stoppers”.
Prosecutor Edward Brown QC told Westminster Magistrates’ Court that the “grossly racist, sexist, misogynistic” messages were sent on the chat between April 5 and August 9, 2019.
The messages were discovered on Couzens’ phone after he was arrested last year.
All three defendants were formerly officers in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and transferred to the Met on February 11, 2019.
Each has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which relate to improper use of public electronic communications network, contrary to the Communications Act 2003.
The court heard that on June 21, Cobban was told by an unnamed sender that he could not be “ditched” by the Met because of his “skill sets”, unless he went so far as to sexually assault “a DV [domestic violence] victim”.
Cobban replied: “That’s alright, DV victims love it…that’s why they are repeat victims more often than not.”
Mr Brown said these messages “target the most vulnerable in society who often feel unable to report abuse to police”.
He added: “We submit that this grossly offensive to right thinking members of society and of course particularly to domestic abuse victims.
“Police officers should represent a safe haven for victims of domestic violence.
“Such derogatory comments about victims of domestic abuse serve to undermine this important policing objective.”
He also said the comments in the group chat suggest “that victims are encouraging, provoking or at least deserving of abuse to which they are subjected”.
Cobban, who volunteered to be a race and diversity custodian for his unit, is also accused of making racist comments by comparing Hounslow to a “f****** [nationality] s***-hole” on June 29 and describing patrolling the town centre as “walking along a Dulux colour code”.
Speaking about a hospital patient, he reportedly said: “I dealt with one of those, hospital guard for some attention seeking self-harming fag.”
He also allegedly said he was “hoping to get a fight or something to prove myself”.
Meanwhile Boarders, from Preston, Lancashire, is accused of speaking about raping a female colleague on April 25.
Speaking about the colleague with Cobban, he said: “She will use me as an example. Lead me on then get me locked up when I rape and beat her!
“Sneaky b****.”
Earlier that month, he also allegedly told Cobban: “I can’t wait to get on guns so I can shoot some c*** in the face”.
Cobban allegedly replied to this saying he wanted to “Taser a cat and a dog to see which reacts better”, adding: “Same with children. Zap zap you little f******”.
In his police interviews, Cobban has said he regretted sending the messages, describing them as “stupid”.
Referring to his comments about the Hounslow community being a “Dulux chart”, he said: “This comment was in relation to the vibrancy of the area.
“It was a shock to see… I was new to the area.”
Borders described his comments as “dark humour which I appreciate will offend some people”.
Couzens, whose messages were not read in court due to other ongoing investigations, is serving a whole life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Ms Everard in March last year.
The trial continues.
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