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.
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.
Six police officers in a gangbusting police unit where they joked that a black colleague had been flown in from Africa in a cate and shared fake porn images of Prince Harry and Kate Middleton face the sack after being found guilty of gross misconduct.
Detective Inspector Timothy Ireson, Detective Sergeant Oliver Lage, Detective Sergeant Gregory Willcox, trainee Detective Constable Andrew Ferguson, PC James Oldfield, and PC Craig Bannerman from Hampshire Constabulary learned their fate at a misconduct hearing today.
The serious organised crime team were caught using the whole array of offensive language in a series of covert recordings after a complaint was made about their behaviour.
Mr Beer said: This was a specialist police unit that enjoyed relative isolation from the rest of the force due to the sensitive and sometimes covert nature of the work that it undertook. That isolation and a lack of leadership by Mr Ireson and Det Sgt Willcox appears to have led to a toxic, abhorrent culture developing in the unit amongst some officers. [This] is inconsistent with the values and standards of the police service in the 21st century and inconsistent with continued service in the police service.
He added: It was a unit that was plain nasty that displayed attitudes towards groups and communities that police officers are called upon to protect.
Detective Inspector Timothy Ireson (Credit: Solent News and Photo Agency) A DETECTIVE in charge of the Basingstoke unit accused of making racist and sexist remarks as well as circulating fake Royal pornography has admitted with hindsight his leadership should have been more rigorous . Detective Inspector Timothy Ireson said he should have been aware of an escalation in behaviour among his officers as they made repeated stomach turning remarks. The serious organised crime team, previously described as ableist, sexist, racist, transphobic and homophobic , were caught using an array of abusive language in a covert recording. A junior officer told a misconduct hearing that in the isolated unit everyone became inappropriately cavalier due to a culture in which nothing was ever challenged.