Undercover footage prompts Met Police probe at Charing Cross custody

Undercover footage filmed inside Charing Cross police station in central London shows Metropolitan Police officers making racist and sexist remarks, calling for immigrants to be shot and boasting about violence used against detainees, prompting a wide internal investigation, multiple suspensions and the arrest of a serving sergeant. The force said the allegations, captured by an undercover reporter placed in the custody suite, span several months and have prompted disciplinary and criminal inquiries by senior police and the independent watchdog.

The footage includes officers making derogatory comments about people from Algeria, Somalia and other foreign nationalities and discussing Islam in hostile terms. One officer, identified in the material as PC Phil Neilson, is recorded saying, according to the footage, "Either put a bullet through his head or deport him," when referring to a detainee who had overstayed a visa, and using violent language about suspects who assault women. Other scenes show a colleague laughing about stamping on a detainee and a sergeant making sexualised remarks about women in custody. The material also includes accounts of officers bragging about using...