A senior police detective who was among the first responding to the London Bridge terrorist attack has been sacked for using the word ‘pikey’ in messages sent about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people.
Detective Constable Mark Luker of British Transport Police (BTP) rushed to the scene after three terrorists deliberately drove a van into pedestrians walking over London Bridge, before fleeing to Borough Market and stabbing innocent bystanders, in June 2017.
Eight people died and another 48 were injured during the attack.
But now the award-winning detective, who had been with the force for more than 20 years, has been dismissed for gross misconduct over his use of language.
In one WhatsApp message, Mr Luker used the term ‘dags’, referencing a scene in the Guy Ritchie film Snatch in which Stephen Graham’s character struggles to understand the accent of Brad Pitt when he mentions dogs, the misconduct panel heard.
Mr Luker, in another message, referred to ‘scrap metal, lead roofing and cable’ which he accepted was a joke to associate theft with the Irish Traveller community, the panel was told.
The hearing, which was held earlier this month in public, concluded he probably knew the language was ‘offensive’ to a minority community and ruled it as gross misconduct.
Mark Luker of British Transport Police rushed to the scene after three terrorists deliberately drove a van into pedestrians walking over London Bridge in 2017. Picture from the scene
Photos issued by the Metropolitan Police of the London Bridge terrorists (left to right) Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba
Mr Luker was a member of a WhatsApp group called ‘Selbie Gumshoes’ with other members of the Major Serious and Organised Crime (MSOC) team, the panel heard.
On December 31, 2024, during a conversation about someone winning a bottle of whiskey which 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”, the panel was told.
He then added: ‘You are the MSOC pikey liaison’.
The panel found that these were ‘deliberate messages, that clearly link the Irish Traveller community to acts of theft’.
It added that the use of the word ‘dags’ in the messages was ‘derogatory’ as it refers to a scene in Snatch where a Gypsy character’s accent is ‘mocked’.
On March 17 last year, 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,’ the panel heard.
Mr Luker replied: ‘Off to find some scrap metal, lead roofing and cable’, the panel was told.
The panel concluded that this was ‘deliberate and discriminatory’ in linking the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community to theft.
On March 27 last year, he used the word ‘pikey’ again, which the panel found to be ‘disrespectful’.
Mr Luker said that he was one of the first responders to the 2017 terrorist attack on London Bridge and one of his coping mechanisms for dealing with the day can involve the use of humour.
Concerning his use of the term ‘pikey’, Mr Luker stated that he grew up in west London with a lot of Irish travellers and it was a word used to denote a traveller.
‘He did not intend to use discriminatory language and was now deeply regretful and immensely sorry,’ the panel heard.
The seasoned detective was among a handful honoured at the annual British Transport Police Federation Awards of Excellence in 2023, which ‘champion the exceptional work’ of officers.
Luker accepted an award on behalf of MSOC’s Investigation Review team for its work on unsolved and undetected rape offences.
The panel accepted that DC Luker is not ‘inherently racist’, but that he would have known his language was ‘especially offensive’.
It 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.’
