A Metropolitan Police officer who shared a racist joke with colleagues has been convicted of sending a grossly offensive message. 

Michael Chadwell, 62, forwarded a graphic into a WhatsApp group chat with other officers showing a picture of different coloured parrots above an image of children of different races. 

Text on the image said: “Why do we cherish the variety of colour in every species… but our own?” 

Underneath was a comment which said: “Because I have never had a bike stolen out of my front yard by a parrot”. 

Chadwell, from Liss in Hampshire, denied one count of sending by public communication a grossly offensive racist message but he was found guilty after a trial at City of London Magistrates’ Court on Monday (October 6). 

He had sent the photo on September 28, 2022. 

District Judge Tan Ikram said: “He thought it was funny but it was grossly offensive and he was aware of that at the time, that is why I find the defendant guilty of this offence.” 

Chadwell is due to be sentenced at the same court on Monday afternoon, alongside five co-defendants, all also former Met officers, Robert Lewis, Anthony Elsom, Trevor Lewton, Peter Booth and Alan Hall, who last month admitted sending grossly offensive racist messages.