A police inspector accused of racially abusing a colleague has walked free from court after a sheriff ruled messages between the officers were ‘banter’.
Gerard Friel, 52, labelled PC Mehmet Uslu, 38, ‘mongo Mehmet from Marmaris’ and ‘wee Arab Mo’ on a WhatsApp group chat while they worked together in Motherwell, Lanarkshire.
He was charged after the messages were reported to senior bosses.
A trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court heard Uslu claim Friel showed ill will towards him as he started to become the butt of a string of the inspector’s jokes which were passed off as ‘banter’.
Messages shown to the court from Friel saw him call Uslu a ‘Turkish p***y’, a ‘p**f’ and ‘Turkish mongo’.
After Uslu sent a message which misspelt him going off ‘sick’ as ‘suck’, Friel sent back: ‘Go off suck?I bet you do ya bender.’
Friel, of Hamilton, accepted he had sent the messages but denied behaving in a threatening or abusive manner between February 2019 and April 2020.
Gerard Friel, 51, accepted he had sent the messages but denied behaving in a threatening or abusive manner between February 2019 and April 2020
Prosecutors alleged he asked other police officers if they could understand Uslu, repeatedly uttered remarks of a racial and homophobic nature and also sent him electronic messages containing similar remarks.
But he was cleared by Sheriff Shirley McKenna who said the messages were not ‘threatening or abusive’ and had to be looked at in context of the ‘culture’ of ‘jokes and banter’ between the three officers in the WhatsApp group chat.
She said evidence before her showed Uslu had stayed in the group chat with Friel and the other officer for more than a year before he reported the messages as abusive.
Friel, who has now retired after 28 years in the force, had earlier told his trial he regarded Uslu as a ‘friend’ and was ‘shocked’ and ’embarrassed’ to find himself in court.
He said: ‘If I thought for one minute that I was insulting or offending someone I would apologise and change the way I was because that is the type of person that I am.
‘This was the biggest shock of my life when I found out that he had made allegations that he had been offended by me.’
In evidence, Uslu told the court he regretted not reporting Friel earlier and later raised a complaint with the Police Federation who referred the case to Police Scotland professional standards.
He added: ‘I was angry with myself that I had let that happen with the overall course of conduct and racist remarks towards me.
‘But I was scared to do anything because he always showed himself as being untouchable and that he would make your life a misery.
‘I had seen what had happened to others who challenged.’
Gerard Friel, 51, was alleged alleged to have made racist and homophobic comments towards PC Mehmet Uslu, 38, while they worked together in Motherwell, Lanarkshire
Finding Friel not guilty, Sheriff McKenna said: ‘It is important to set out the relationship between the officers and what was sent in those messages which retrospectively became abusive to the complainer a year after they were sent.
‘The culture of the officers was that there were lots of jokes and the complainer accepted he thought they were a joke and did not tell the accused he was offended.
‘The messages were responded to by the complainer with emojis, particularly the crying face laughing emoji and the complainer engaged in the same type of jokes as was evidenced in the messages before the court.
‘I find the messages viewed were derogatory and could be considered grossly offensive being sent by a senior police officer and could be perceived as being racist and homophobic and could cause a reasonable person fear or alarm if taken in isolation without any background into the circumstances in which they were sent.
‘These messages were sent with a view of being banter and a joke and that was portrayed to me through others in this case and I find the case against the accused not guilty.’
Friel was cleared of claims he slammed a door in the Uslu’s face, shouted and swore at him, mispronounced his name, called the constable a derogatory name, asked him if he was speaking English and that he could not understand what he was saying.
He was also cleared of an alternative charge of sending Uslu text messages of a homophobic and racial nature which were grossly offensive or of an indecent, canlı rulet siteleri obscene or menacing character in April 2019.
It was alleged the alternative charge was aggravated by homophobic prejudice and racism.