Carmarthenshire, Wales’ Peter Booth given 8-week imprisonment, 12-month suspension

Peter Booth, 66, of Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom is a former officer with the Metropolitan Police Service. Also called the Met, the territorial police force is based at New Scotland Yard in Westminster, London, England, U.K.

In April 2001, Booth retired from the Met. He was a member of Old Boys Beer Meet – Wales, a WhatsApp group established in August 2018 for police officers to maintain contact after retirement.

Including Booth, six former Met officers are accused of sharing racist messages on the free internet-based text and voice messaging service between September 2020 and September 2022. Numerous racist, homophobic and sexist messages were exchanged in the WhatsApp group chat.

References to the Prince and Princess of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, U.K.’s prime minister Rishi Sunak, U.K.’s former home secretary Priti Patel and U.K.’s former health secretary Sajid Javid were included in the messages shared in the group. On September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK at age 96.

Six former UK police officers were sentenced for sending racist messages about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Five of them pleaded guilty while a sixth officer Michael Chadwell pleaded not guilty to one count of sending an offensive message https://t.co/WS3cSqBGuW pic.twitter.com/6v9pzsq7Qo

— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) December 8, 2023

In the WhatsApp group chat, Booth shared a photo of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with a golliwog doll and a joke about Pakistani flood victims. The Llandeilo resident and the five other former Met officers were each charged with improper use of a public electronic communications network offence.

On September 7, 2023, five of the retired Met officers including Booth pleaded to sending grossly offensive racist messages on WhatsApp. In particular, Booth pleaded guilty to four counts of sending by public communication grossly offensive racist messages.

On December 7, 2023, Booth and the five other former Met officers appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. He was given an 8-week imprisonment, a 12-month suspension and 140 hours of unpaid work.

“It is shocking that six retired police officers who spent their careers upholding the law could think it was acceptable to send these grossly offensive messages,” London South Complex Casework Unit senior crown prosecutor Adeniyi Ogunleye stated. “The sentences given today clearly demonstrate that they were not just shocking or disturbing jokes, but grossly offensive messages that amount to criminal behaviour.”