Overview
- After a public misconduct hearing held between November 2025 and February 2026, PC Billy Manning received a two-year final written warning and PC Frankie Jordan received a three-year warning, and the Met issued an apology.
- The case began in September 2021 in Dalston, where PC Zak Malik used his personal phone to photograph a decomposed body and sent the image to Manning on WhatsApp to shrink the file for upload to the Met system and the coroner.
- Manning later showed the picture during a Taser training session at Shoreditch police station, which colleagues reported, leading to his arrest and a wider investigation.
- Investigators who seized devices found more images tied to victims, suspects and evidence, and uncovered a WhatsApp group called Away Days that contained sexist, homophobic, ableist and transphobic posts.
- Officers told the inquiry they relied on personal phones and WhatsApp because police-issued tablets produced poor photos, while leadership guidance stayed muddled even after a February 2022 decision to bar personal-phone use for policing.