Joke lead to 'homophobia' warning
A councillor was questioned by police for two hours after a jokey one-liner at a public meeting was deemed "homophobic".
Conservative Jonathan Yardley was "let off with a warning" after being "put through the mill" by a sergeant and an inspector for making the quip at a recent West Midlands Police liason meeting he had chaired.
Audience members were given handsets allowing them to electronically answer questions that were being flashed up on screen as part of a presentation.
A police authority worker said: "Let's start with an easy question to get us going: Press A if you're male or B if you're female."
Councillor Yardley, who represents the Tettenhall Regis ward, said today: "To general amusement, someone piped up: 'What if you're transgendered?'.
"I quipped that you could press A and B together. There was much laughter.
"Several days later a complaint of homophobia was made. I was asked to go to the local police station, questioned for two hours by a sergeant and an inspector and let off with a warning."
The 48-year-old said he had not realised there was a transsexual in the audience whose male partner had asked the original question. Councillor Yardley said the event then carried on as normal. But at a routine meeting with Wolverhampton's chief superintendent Richard Green just days later, he was stunned to be told a complaint had made about "homophobic comments".
He was then contacted by Tettenhall sergeant Mark Evans, who asked him to attend a meeting at the village's police station with city centre Inspector John Smith.
Councillor Yardley said: "They put me through the mill and asked me to confirm what I'd said and told me that a complaint had been made and I could be prosecuted. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. They explained the legal process and what had happened and how the complaint had been made and they said I could be subject to a civil prosecution. There are much more important issues that the police should be spending their time on. These are the times we live in, you can't make jokes any more."
West Midlands Police spokesman Mark Payne said today: "As part of a regular series of meetings that the councillor has with of officers, they raised with him his inappropriate comments and offered him advice on making them in public."
