Officer dismissed after discriminatory messages found on phone

An officer who sent racist, misogynistic and ableist messages has been dismissed and barred from policing after being found to have committed gross misconduct.

PC Luke Hurst, who is based in Bridgwater, had his personal mobile phone seized as part of an investigation in May 2025.

When the phone was examined, investigators found PC Hurst had sent offensive messages through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

A misconduct hearing held at Police Headquarters on Thursday (2 July) also heard that, separately to sending the discriminatory messages, he also encouraged a former partner to misrepresent their living arrangements to falsely claim benefits they were not entitled to, which she refused to do.

In addition, while suspended he started work at a factory on full time hours without a business interest approval.

A panel found the officer, who was suspended from duty, had committed gross misconduct and he was dismissed without notice. He’ll be added to the national barred list preventing him from working in policing or other law enforcement agencies again.

Det Supt Larisa Hunt, head of the Professional Standards Department, said: “There must be no place in policing for these abhorrent views and whenever they are uncovered, we’ll take swift and decisive action.

“There are significant consequences for those who abuse social media platforms with officers or staff facing dismissal and, in some cases, even criminal proceedings.

“We take these matters extremely seriously and continue to urge our officers and staff to call out all forms of discrimination whenever its seen or heard. There are confidential reporting systems and support services in place to allow them to do this.”