The firearms officer claims he is “in no way homophobic” despite using slurs

A Merseyside Police firearms officer who called two senior colleagues “p***s*” has insisted he was “in no way homophobic” after being confronted.

PC Daniel Johnson allegedly claimed he was “in no way homophobic” after referring to the two officers as “two p***s together”, adding that “it was just a common term he used for to describe anyone he thought was weak’. In his defence, the 43-year-old firearms officer “provided texts with himself and his wife using the word in other contexts”, a misconduct hearing heard.

Appearing at Merseyside Police headquarters yesterday, Monday 12, PC Johnson was charged with a number of unacceptable acts amounting to serious misconduct, including drinking in a pub during a shift and stealing from his employer.

READ MORE: Dad found himself in court after kicking out the home invader

READ MORE: Cracking down on the dodgy Amazon Fire TV Stick could lead to home raids

On March 12, 2019, PC Johnson sent a text message to a fellow officer describing two senior colleagues as “two p***s together”.

On May 2 of the same year, he used WhatsApp to send a “clearly racist” image of a woman in traditional Islamic clothing on a market walk, along with the words “detonator bombs away”. Lawyer Barney Branston, representing Merseyside Police, said the officer later claimed he shared the image because he thought it was in “bad taste”.

On 30 April 2021, he had lunch with his wife at the Jug and Bottle pub in Heswall while serving an 8am-4pm shift and allegedly drank wine. According to CCTV footage, he left the pub at around 1.20pm and returned with his friends at 3.25pm ​​and allegedly continued to drink alcohol.

Mr Branston said PC Johnson claimed the wine on his table belonged to his wife and that he had been drinking lemonade during his shift – but the force denied this.

On 4 August 2021, he allegedly stole two rams from Smithdown Lane station because he “thought it would help to weigh down his parasol at home”. PC Johnson claimed the items were “known to be used for waste” and that other officers also helped themselves to pieces of equipment – however the sergeant in charge said he never gave anyone permission to do so thing.

The officer also allegedly stole a saw blade from a police storage room on August 5, 2021. He said he intended to return it but was unable to do so due to a period of paternity leave beginning on August 25 – although Mr Branston said he had “always intended to keep the blade” as he had made no attempt to return it before the leave period.

An examination of PC Johnson’s phone in connection with the two alleged thefts has turned up old text messages which Merseyside Police say relate to another saw theft in 2017.

The hearing continues.

Don’t miss the biggest and breaking stories by subscribing to the Echo Daily newsletter here