Met Police officer sacked for tasering homeless people remarks after BBC sting

PC Lloyd Hunter was dismissed after undercover BBC Panorama footage showed him saying tasering people was "so much fun". He is the 13th officer sacked following the investigation.

Met officer dismissed after saying he "couldn't wait" to taser homeless people

A Metropolitan Police officer has been sacked after undercover footage captured him saying tasering homeless people would be "just so much fun", a misconduct hearing in Sutton, south London, was told on Wednesday.

PC Lloyd Hunter, 23 at the time of filming, was recorded during a covert BBC Panorama investigation at Charing Cross police station. The Independent reports that Hunter was not featured in the programme when it aired in October 2025, but was identified after the BBC shared unaired footage with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The footage was filmed in November 2024 in Earl's Court, where Hunter had been drinking with undercover journalist Rory Bibb. Bibb had spent seven months embedded as a detention officer at Charing Cross, covertly recording colleagues throughout that period.

Having recently completed his taser training, Hunter told the reporter: "I cannot wait to do it, I love it." When asked who he would taser first, he replied "probably a homeless man." He went on to say he would like to arrest all homeless people on Oxford Street each week, cycling them through orders and notices until they ended up in prison.

"I think we should get rid of them, we should just bin them off, I hate them," he said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Carl Galvin, presiding over the accelerated misconduct hearing, ruled that the behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and dismissed Hunter from the force without notice, barring him from re-entering the profession.

Stephen Morley, presenting the case against Hunter, said the officer had "failed dismally" to meet the high standards required, describing his remarks as "vile comments" that would "horrify" members of the public — particularly vulnerable homeless people.

Giving evidence, Hunter apologised and called his comments "abhorrent". He said it felt like "an avalanche hitting" when he was suspended, and described the remarks as "flippant comments from an idiotic 23-year-old who just wanted to make friends with someone." He added that he had no close friends at Charing Cross and was responding to what he described as "ridiculous comments" from the reporter.

Hunter's barrister, Luke Ponte KC, asked the hearing who among those present had not, in their early twenties, "said anything in the pub that in the cold light of day they realise they should not have said." Ponte argued the comments reflected "immaturity rather than bigotry" and that his client had endured a "miserable time" because of the culture at Charing Cross. He also contended it was unusual in misconduct proceedings for behaviour to have been "to some degree provoked by the actions of an undercover reporter."

Galvin acknowledged that Hunter had not responded to many of the inflammatory remarks made by the BBC journalist, and had initially said he would not want to use a taser at all. Nevertheless, he concluded that the comments lacked the "self-control, tolerance, respect and courtesy required of officers" and exposed "derogatory views."

Hunter said he never deployed his taser during his 21 months as a police officer and that, since returning to Cumbria, he has been volunteering with the Samaritans and working with homeless people to educate himself.

He is the 13th officer to be dismissed as a result of the Panorama investigation. Since the programme aired, 12 Met officers and one Gloucestershire officer have been dismissed or barred from the profession. Nine officers remain under investigation by the IOPC, including three subject to criminal inquiries. A further officer is due to face a misconduct hearing on 15 September.

The hour-long Panorama programme had shown officers calling for immigrants to be shot, boasting about excessive use of force, and joking about rape and sexual assault. The investigation built on an earlier IOPC inquiry from 2022 that uncovered evidence of misogyny, homophobia and sexual harassment at Charing Cross, including officers joking about rape.

IOPC director of engagement Amanda Rowe said: "Regardless of whether these comments were made on or off-duty, they are completely unacceptable and undermine the public's confidence in police officers. We continue to work hard to ensure that officers whose behaviour falls far below what the public deserve and expect are held to account and swift action is taken, to ensure they are removed from policing."

Source: The Independent