Named: Two Met police officers and ex-cop charged over ‘grossly offensive’ messages in Wayne Couzens WhatsApp group

The three were named by the CPS on Tuesday as Pc Jonathon Cobban, Pc William Neville and ex-constable Joel Borders
Wayne Couzens court case
Wayne Couzens received a whole life jail term in September for raping and murdering Sarah Everard
PA
Michael Howie21 February 2022
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Two police constables and one ex-officer charged with sharing “grossly offensive” WhatsApp messages with Sarah Everard murderer Wayne Couzens have been named by prosecutors after their identities were initially kept secret.

Pc Jonathon Cobban, 35, Pc William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 16, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

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.

Sarah Everard (Family Handout/CPS/PA)
PA Media

“Pc Jonathon Cobban, 35, Pc William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 16 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.”

Cobban and Borders are each charged with five counts of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network, while Neville faces two counts of the same offence.

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

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