One of the first police officers on the scene of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack has been sacked for gross misconduct for his use of the word “pikey” in messages about Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller people.
In one WhatsApp message, Detective Constable Mark Luker of British Transport Police used the term “dags”.
He was referencing a scene from the Guy Ritchie film Snatch in which Stephen Graham’s character struggles to understand Brad Pitt’s character’s accent when he mentions dogs, the misconduct panel heard.
In another message Mr Luker referred to “scrap metal, lead roofing and cable”, which he accepted was a joke to link theft to the Irish Traveller community, the panel was told.
The panel concluded he was likely aware the language was “offensive” to a minority community and ruled it gross misconduct.
But it accepted that DC Luker is not “inherently racist”.
The panel wrote: “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.”
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Mr Luker was on a WhatsApp group called “Selbie Gumshoes” with other members of the Major Serious and Organised Crime (MSOC) team, the panel heard.
On 31 December 2024, discussing someone winning a bottle of whiskey that still had a security tag attached, he wrote: “Was this a raffle on a certain kind of site? Lots of mobile type homes? Lots of ‘Dags’.”
He added: “You are the MSOC pikey liaison.”
The panel found these were “deliberate messages, that clearly link the Irish Traveller community to acts of theft”.
It said the use of the word “dags” in messages was “derogatory” as it refers to a scene in Snatch where a Gypsy character’s accent is “mocked”.
On 17 March 2025, another group member shared a video of “Paddy Day parade on Inishbofin”, with the message: “Just like a Disney World Parade. They know how to put on a show.”
Mr Luker replied: “Off to find some scrap metal, lead roofing and cable.”
The panel concluded this was “deliberate and discriminatory”, linking the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community to theft.
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On 27 March 2025, he again used the word “pikey”, which the panel found to be “disrespectful”.
Mr Luker said he was one of the first responders to the London Bridge terror attack and one of his coping mechanisms for dealing with that day can involve the use of humour.
He said he did not intend to be offensive when using the word “pikey” in messages.
