A POLICE OFFICER who was one of the first responders to the 2017 terror attack on London Bridge has been dismissed for making offensive comments about Travellers.
DC Mark Luker of the British Transport Police (BTP) used the word 'pikey' in several messages on a work WhatsApp group, including referring to someone as a 'pikey liaison'.
He also used the word 'dags' — in reference to the film Snatch — and responded to a post about a St Patrick's Day parade by typing: "Off to find some scrap metal, lead roofing and cable."
DC Luker said he did not intend to either use discriminatory language or offend members of the Travelling community.
However, the misconduct panel did not accept that he did not know that the use of the word 'pikey' would be offensive and dismissed DC Luker without notice for gross misconduct.
Father Ted explanation
The case centred around four text messages sent by DC Luker on three separate dates.
In the first message from December 31, 2024, the officer responded to a message about someone winning a bottle of whiskey that still had the security tag attached.
DC Luker wrote: "Was this a raffle on a certain kind of site? Lots of mobile type homes? Lots of 'Dags'."
He sent a second message a minute later saying: "You are the MSOC pikey liaison."
On March 17, 2025, the officer responded to a video of a St Patrick's Day parade by writing: "Off to find some scrap metal, lead roofing and cable."
Ten days later, he wrote: "Looking at who is booked to be travelling with [a suspect] tomorrow I think we are going to have one pissed off pikey family!!!!"
The tribunal heard that PC Luker said the use of the word 'dags' was a reference to Irish sitcom Father Ted.
He added that he had an ongoing joke with a colleague in which they referred to the Irish island of Inishbofin — where someone they knew came from — as the show's Craggy Island.
However, the panel failed to see the correlation between the TV show and the references to Irish Travellers, while DC Luker conceded in cross examination that 'dags' was more linked to the film Snatch.
The word refers to a joke in the film about the accent of a Traveller when referring to dogs.
DC Luker accepted in cross examination that the Travelling community are not portrayed in a positive light and are linked to criminality in the film.
File photo: DC Luker was among the first responders to the 2017 London Bridge terror attack (Image: Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)The officer accepted that the implication of the 'scrap metal' message was to associate theft with the Irish Traveller community.
He added that it was misplaced humour meant as a joke and denied using a lazy stereotype and did not intend to offend the Gypsy Roma Traveller (GRT) community.
However, he said in an interview that he would not say the comments to a member of the GRT community's face.
With regard to the final message, the officer accepted that 'pikey' was a word that he used to refer to Irish Travellers but that he was not consciously using discriminatory language.
He accepted that the word was used synonymously with people stealing but that he did not intend it to be offensive.
DC Luker said that he grew up in West London with a lot of Irish Travellers and it was a word used to denote a Traveller.
He added that he did not intend to use discriminatory language and was now deeply regretful and immensely sorry.
DC Luker stated that he was not inherently racist but accepted that his conduct breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour and amounted to misconduct.
The officer said that he was one of the first responders to the 2017 London Bridge terror attack and that one of his coping mechanisms for dealing with that day is grounding himself, which can involve the use of humour.
While panel acknowledged the extremely difficult circumstances surrounding DC Luker's PTSD, it said there was no evidence that this is what caused him to send the messages.
'Undermines trust'
In their ruling, the panel did not accept the officer's explanation that he did not know that the use of the word 'pikey' would be offensive, discriminatory and inappropriate to members of the Travelling community.
"As an experienced BTP police officer used to dealing with a whole range of people, the Panel found that, on the balance of probabilities, he probably would have known that this was an especially offensive use of language directed towards members of a minority community," they said.
They added: "The conduct which the officer has been accused of is incompatible with his role as a police officer.
"The allegations also involve discriminatory messages sent on a work WhatsApp group and because of that is particularly serious as it significantly undermines the trust that the public need to have in their police for the service to be effective and criminal justice system to be effective.
"The Panel concluded that given the seriousness of the misconduct the only appropriate penalty having regard to the factors that it outlined… is dismissal without notice for gross misconduct."
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See More: British Transport Police, Traveller Community
