Met officers accused of sharing offensive messages with Wayne Couzens named

The two serving Metropolitan Police officers and a former officer who have been accused of sharing ‘grossly offensive’ messages with Wayne Couzens have been named.

The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised charges against Pc Jonathon Cobban, 35, Pc William Neville, 33, and ex-constable Joel Borders, 45.

When it announced the charges last week, the CPS initially said that it could not release the names of the officers due to ‘operational reasons’, but on Monday their identities were published, as is standard in criminal cases.

They are said to have sent the messages to Sarah Everard’s killer on a WhatsApp group chat.

Cobban and Borders have both been charged with five counts of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network contrary to S127 of the Communications Act 2003, while Neville faces two counts of the same offence.

They will make a first appearance before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 16.

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said: ‘Following a referral of evidence by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the CPS authorised charges against two serving Metropolitan Police officers and one former officer.

‘PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 16 March for their first hearing.

‘Each of the three defendants has been charged with sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network. The alleged offences took place on a WhatsApp group chat.

‘The function of the CPS is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges to a court to consider.

‘Criminal proceedings are active and nothing should be published that could jeopardise the defendants right to a fair trial.’

According to watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the alleged offences occurred between April and August 2019.

Serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens raped and murdered Ms Everard in March last year and received a whole life jail term in September.

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