The three officers, whose identities were being kept private, have been named, after they were alleged to have swapped racist and misogynistic texts with Couzens
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Three Met Police officers charged for allegedly exchanging grossly offensive messages for the killer of Sarah Everard, Wayne Couzens, have been named by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The officers have been identified as Pc Jonathon Cobban, 35, Pc William Neville, 33, and former constable Joel Borders, 45.
The accusations levelled at the three officers are that they swapped racist and misogynistic messages with the ex protection officer, approximately two years before he raped and murdered Sarah.
The trio, according to the CPS, were charged with sending grossly offensive texts via WhatsApp between April and August 2019.
But the CPS, which said they were withholding the names for "operational reasons", received accusation that the officers were receiving "special treatment".
Cobban and Borders have both been charged with five counts of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network - falling foul of the Communications Act 2003.
Neville has been charged with two counts.
The decision to withhold the officers' names came after a Supreme Court decision confirming criminal suspects have the right to privacy. As such they cannot be named in the press before being charged, unless there's a proper public interest to do so.
In spite of this ruling, defendants, including the likes of Couzens, are identified when they're charged.
The decision to withhold the names was therefore highly unusual.
Scotland Yard has confirmed that the two officers still serving have now been suspended.
The three officers will appear at Westminster Magistrates' court on March 16.
Head of the CPS Special Crime Division, Rosemary Ainslie, said: "Following a referral of evidence by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the CPS authorised charges against two serving Metropolitan Police officers and one former officer.
"PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 16 March 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."
The IOPC said: "The IOPC's investigation began following a referral from the MPS in April last year (2021) and was completed in December when we referred a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
"The CPS has taken the decision to authorise charges against the officers."
