Fundraiser for police officers sacked over black athlete search reaches £100,000

More than £100,000 has been raised for two former Metropolitan Police officers after they were sacked over the stop and search of two black Olympic athletes.

Thousands of supporters have donated to a JustGiving crowdfunding page, which aims to help ex-constables Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks at “a time of great austerity”.

The page states that the donations have been a “huge comfort” for the officers and thanks those who donated as they have “genuinely made a difference”.

“So please refrain from airing them on this platform.”

Ex-constables Clapham and Franks were sacked on Wednesday after a disciplinary panel found their actions during a “highly distressing” stop and search of Team GB athlete Bianca Williams, 29, and her partner, the Portuguese sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos, 28, amounted to gross misconduct.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) brought the case against the five officers and said that the detention of Mr Dos Santos and Ms Williams was “because they were black” and was “excessive, unreasonable and unjustified”.

The panel found they lied about smelling cannabis when they pulled over the couple on July 4 2020.

Jules Carey, a solicitor at Bindmans LLP, who represents Ms Williams and Mr Dos Santos, claimed “a very significant number of the comments” on the fundraising page appeared to be written by “serving officers, police units and police associations”.

The page has now removed all comments “to respect the impending appeal”.

Messages had described the situation as “scandalous appeasement and scapegoating” and called to “stop destroying this once great police service the envy of the world”.

Mr Carey said: “Yet again it appears that loyalty is being held up by officers as a quality that should trump integrity.

“The commissioner should immediately come out to publicly support the panel’s decision and the importance of accountability in the Met if public confidence in the police stands a chance of being restored in London.”

She added: “Is this what we do now? Raise money for lying cops?”

The police followed the athletes as they drove to their west London home from training with their baby son, then three months old, in the back seat of their Mercedes.

They were accused of racially profiling the couple alongside fellow Met officers Acting Police Sergeant Rachel Simpson, Pc Allan Casey and Pc Michael Bond, who were found not to have breached any standards.

The misconduct panel heard they followed Mr Dos Santos in their police carrier because of the “appalling” and “suspicious” nature of his driving and were doing their duty when they conducted the stop and search.

The couple were handcuffed and searched on suspicion of having drugs and weapons after they were pulled over outside their property, but nothing was found.

During his evidence, Mr Dos Santos accused the officers of detaining him for “DWB, driving while black”.

The hearing was told Mr Dos Santos was stopped nine times within four weeks of buying a car in 2018.

Ms Williams cried as she watched footage of Mr Dos Santos getting pulled from the driver’s seat to the roadside and handcuffed.

Earlier this year, Ms Williams won bronze in the 4x100m at the World Athletics Championships.

Mr Dos Santos competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021, in the 400m.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward said the couple “deserved better and I apologise to them for the distress they have suffered”.

He said: “Honesty and integrity are at the core of policing and, as the panel has concluded, there can be no place in the Met for officers who do not uphold these values.”

He added that the panel’s findings highlight they “still have a long way to go to earn the trust of our communities, particularly our black communities when it comes to our use of stop and search”.