Bedfordshire Police officer quits after posting anti gay, trans and immigration comments on X
A police offer resigned just days before a gross misconduct hearing after being caught posting discriminatory posts on social media.
Last week’s hearing ruled that Gary Lorenc would have been kicked out of the force even if he hadn’t quit in January.
During the gross misconduct hearing which he did not attend, Lorenc was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour for authority respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct.
The independent panel heard how he had used a publicly accessible X profile (formerly Twitter) to post abusive, insulting and offensive messages towards serving MPs, political views, discriminatory posts towards gay and trans people and prejudicial views towards asylum seekers during 2023 and 2024.
He used the handle Bootneck77 with the display name Gary to have a go at David Lammy MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, as well as posting numerous anti gay, anti trans and anti immigration replies to other users.
In his determination, panel chair assistant chief constable Vaughan Lukey said: “The messages when considered together presented a disturbing picture of this former officer’s views, which clearly demonstrated his prejudice based on ethnicity, sex and sexual orientation which are incompatible for any serving member of the police service.
“His views displayed attitudes that were the antithesis of the fairness and impartiality required of police officers and therefore unacceptable.”
The hearing ruled had he still been serving he would have been dismissed without notice. He will be added to the College of Policing Barred list banning him from returning to policing or similar professions.