Police officer struck off for "hate speech against black women" in training room at Northamptonshire HQ

A Northamptonshire Police officer has been struck off for making "hate speech against black women" to his colleagues on a lunch break.

PC Mehmet Akkaya has been dismissed without notice for a series of comments he made in February 2020.

The remarks were were reported to senior officers by PC Akkaya's colleagues and led to an automatic referral to the police force standards watchdog.

A misconduct hearing held on January 22 reported that when confronted by the chief inspector, PC Akkaya "clarified what he said but did not appear to recognize a problem with it."

The report reads: "The Officer says that his conduct was in the context of a private conversation. The Panel do not accept this.

"PC Akkaya was standing up in a training room, talking generally to those around him.

"It may indeed have been intended as a joke, but the realization that it was badly judged did not seem to dawn on him.

"When he was immediately challenged by a fellow officer, he just laughed and continued to speak with someone else."

The officer was later called into a meeting with the chief inspector. He wrote in a statement that his words had been said “without any thought”.

He wrote: "The words I used come across as being discriminatory on the basis of race and for that I apologize'."

However the report continues: "He made no specific acceptance of his conduct as amounting to misconduct... This position was maintained during the misconduct hearing.

"It is of concern that this Officer seemed to lack an instinctive appreciation that his comments were not acceptable.

"The outcome the Panel is imposing is dismissal without notice"