3 hours ago
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A fourth Metropolitan Police officer has been fired for gross misconduct following a BBC Panorama investigation.
PC Jason Sinclair-Birt was secretly filmed "boasting about and revelling in the use of force" on a detainee.
He was dismissed without notice, after the hearing found he had given a "false account" of the incident to the undercover reporter for "comedic effect".
On Thursday, three other Met Police officers were dismissed after accelerated misconduct hearings following the investigation.
Setting out the case, James Berry KC, representing the Met, said: "The Panorama footage demonstrates PC Sinclair-Birt boasted about and revelled in the use of force, and what he was describing was an excessive use of force, on a detainee."
In the undercover footage, played to the panel, Mr Sinclair-Birt was seen describing the arrest saying he "whacked....the back of his legs trying to get him to drop to the floor".
He went on to say, "there's definitely a little bit of red mist there".
The officer was seen smiling during the incident, which the Met said indicated a "troubling lack of remorse or concern for a member of the public".
The hearing was told the conduct of the officer breached the Met's standards of professional behaviour and the conduct amounted to gross misconduct.
Mr Sinclair-Birt denied the allegation against him, but accepted he made the comments which appeared in the programme.
In his statement, he said the comments made to the undercover reporter were "empty words and not a true account of the underling incident".
He said he was "embellishing the account of an actual stop and search and he was doing so for comedic effect".
The hearing was played body warn footage from the stop and search which took place in July 2022, and showed Mr Sinclair-Birt did not use his baton during the incident.
The panel was told Mr Sinclair-Birt used "lawful and proportionate force" throughout the arrest to get the detainee to sit down.
Giving his decision Chair Commander Jason Prins said: "The officer has chosen to share a false account which revelled in the use of force.
He added: "In my view the false account was meant to be taken at face value."
The misconduct process was launched after the Panorama programme was aired on 1 October. An undercover BBC reporter heard officers at Charing Cross police station threatening to shoot immigrants, dismissing claims of rape, and using excessive force on detainees.
On Thursday, Sgt Joe McIlvenny, PC Philip Neilson and PC Martin Borg faced expedited misconduct hearings on Thursday over the footage. All three denied allegations of gross misconduct but accepted they made the comments aired in the programme.
Chair of the panel, Cdr Jason Prins, described the conduct of the officers as a "disgrace".
Ten former and current police officers at Charing Cross station are facing accelerated misconduct hearings over footage of the investigation.
