A Metropolitan Police officer has been found to have committed gross misconduct in a police misconduct hearing and barred from policing after sending racist and misogynistic messages, including mocking a child rape victim.
Scott Roberts, 40, was attached to the central east command unit of the Met as a detective sergeant but also served as an army reservist alongside his policing role. Reservists are part-time soldiers trained to the same standards as the wider force and deployed for additional capacity when needed.
The case against Roberts, which concerns comments he made in a WhatsApp group with army reservist colleagues, was brought by a female colleague who served alongside him in the army, and of whom he was briefly in command. Police misconduct proceedings can concern any alleged breach of standards, including those that occur in other contexts outside policing.
Unlike in the police, internal misconduct processes in the army are often carried out behind closed doors. Documents published this month as part of the police hearing are therefore a rare insight into the culture within the army, which several current and former servicewomen have described to The Observer as misogynistic, racist and bullying.
All requested anonymity for fear of retaliation as they either had signed non-disclosure agreements or were still in the process of bringing complaints.
The allegations against Roberts concerned a set of “offensive and discriminatory” messages. In one exchange, Roberts shared a picture of a Nazi poster with the message: “Get it up in the office.” Another used a racial slur against Black people, while a third, referring to the female colleague who went on to make the formal complaint against Roberts, said: “Sexually assaults her = rapist. Doesn’t sexually assault her = racist.”
In a further message, Roberts appeared to mock a child rape victim, writing: “Our team have dealt with a 15-year-old lad who has orally raped his 8-year-old sister. One of the girls said, ‘Oh my god that’s disgusting’. Naturally my guard was lowered and I said, ‘Why? Is she fat’? Turns out she was not happy with my question.”
Commander Andy Brittain, who chaired the hearing, found all allegations against Roberts proven, dismissing him from the force and barring him from policing. Det Ch Supt Brittany Clarke said Roberts’s behaviour was “utterly unacceptable and falls far below the standards the public rightly expect from Met officers”.
The details of the case have only been made public because of the police misconduct hearing.
This newspaper understands the same allegations were previously made to the army and that an investigation was initiated. In last month’s hearing, Roberts’s lawyer stated he was still a serving reservist.
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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) declined to comment on the status of any investigation or whether Roberts had been formally dismissed from the army, though it is understood that he is not currently undertaking active duties.
Four former and current servicewomen said that they had struggled to pursue accountability in the army. One said the constant bullying and “ganging up” she experienced from male colleagues was so serious that she attempted to take her own life.
“Almost every woman I’ve spoken to in service has a story of sexual harassment or bullying. Too often it’s covered up by senior soldiers and officers who are meant to safeguard against it, and women, including in my personal experience, are retaliated against when they try and raise it,” she said.
She added: “I only didn’t end up on the news as another Gunner Beck because I was interrupted, and I’m sure there are lots of others like me.”
Jaysley Beck, a 19-year-old Royal Artillery gunner, took her own life inside her Wiltshire barracks in December 2021 after the mishandling of her complaints about sexual harassment and assault by male soldiers.
Another woman said: “I grew up in and worked in male-dominated environments, but walking in [to barracks] for the first time was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The sexualised ‘banter’ and unwanted touching was immediate and constant, and from that first day until my last day serving, I felt like there was a target on my back. It was just a deeply hostile and sinister environment for anyone who wasn’t a white man.”
An MoD spokesperson said that unacceptable and criminal behaviour has “no place in our armed forces”, adding: “All service personnel, including reservists, are held to clear standards of behaviour, and where those standards are not met, appropriate action is taken.”
They went on: “We are committed to driving lasting cultural change across defence, and that is why we have launched the raising our standards programme and established the first-ever independent armed forces commissioner.”
Photograph by Matt Cardy/Getty Images