Pc is cleared following failure to bring charges in time
A West Mercia police officer has been cleared of sending offensive messages after a judge found prosecutors failed to bring appropriate charges in time.
Pc Joann Jinks, 41, was facing trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
But Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram formally found her not guilty of three charges of sending a grossly offensive message by a public communication network following legal argument.
The court heard the Crown Prosecution Service made a decision to take no further action against Pc Jinks, from Redditch in Worcestershire, on June 14 last year.
However, following a review of the evidence after the involvement of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, prosecutors decided she should be charged on October 18 last year, although a postal requisition was not sent until the end of March this year.
Mr Ikram found the requisition had not been made in accordance with the rules.
He told the court hearing: “The defendant cannot be tried on these three charges.”
Pc Jinks’s co-defendant, ex-Pc James Watts, 31, was previously jailed for 20 weeks after admitting 10 counts of sending a grossly offensive or menacing message by a public communication network.
Birmingham Magistrates’ Court heard he posted racist WhatsApp memes. His messages mocked the death of George Floyd in a group chat while he was serving with West Mercia Police in 2020.
