Overview
- Detective Constable Mark Luker was sacked after a British Transport Police hearing found his WhatsApp comments about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people amounted to gross misconduct.
- Messages in a team group called Selbie Gumshoes used the slur “pikey” and the term “dags” and linked Irish Traveller communities to theft.
- Examples cited included a 31 December 2024 post about “mobile type homes” and “Dags” and a 27 March 2025 message repeating the slur.
- On 17 March 2025, he replied to a video of a St Patrick’s Day parade with a remark about “scrap metal, lead roofing and cable,” which the panel deemed discriminatory.
- Luker, a first responder to the 2017 London Bridge attack, said he used humour as a coping mechanism and expressed regret, but the panel found he likely knew the language was especially offensive.