Met Police officers had photos of dead bodies on own phones

One image showed an elderly man who had died in sheltered housing in an ‘advanced state of decomposition’

Two Met Police officers retained images of sensitive evidence of their mobile phones

Met Police

5 days ago

Two Met Police officers have been handed final written warnings after retaining images of sensitive evidence - including deceased victims - on their personal mobile phones.

Police misconduct hearings were held for PC Billy Manning and PC Frankie Jordan, both attached to the response team at Stoke Newington Police Station, after it emerged they had kept such images on their phones.

The hearing, chaired by Commander Andy Brittain, found there was a culture of "confusion" even among senior officers about how images should be collected and stored into evidence.

Both officers said it was common practice for officers to use their own phones and send pictures to colleagues via WhatsApp as a “workaround” to compress files, before emailing and uploading them to the Met system.

They argued the quality of their Met Police-issued tablets was "not acceptable" for a coroner's evidence pack, an opinion which appeared to be backed by an independent expert.

The panel noted: "The MPS tablets available were not capable of taking satisfactory photographs. While the use of a personal device was not ideal, the panel accepts that this occurred in an operational context rather than for any improper purpose."

However, PC Billy Manning kept a photo of a deceased elderly man in an “advanced state of decomposition” and showed it to “uncomfortable” junior officers at a taser training session, reportedly telling them: “I’ve been to a bad one, I will show you the picture.”

A junior female officer said she challenged Manning, saying: “You can’t have something like that on your phone, you need to delete that now.”

Another junior officer said he moved away, as he felt uncomfortable around “officers who boasted about jobs that they had attended” and avoided Manning afterwards.

The panel's report states: "Two of the attendees felt very uncomfortable by PC Manning’s actions and his possession of these photographs and subsequently reported it to senior officers."

PC Manning was arrested on February 18, 2022. His phone was seized and several other images relating to victims, suspects and evidence were found on his phone.

Although no criminal charges were made, it was found that PC Manning was the creator and a contributor of a WhatsApp group entitled “Away Days” which contained messages which were considered "sexist, homophobic, ableist and transphobic in content".

PC Frankie Jordan was also found to be a member of the group and a search of his phone also uncovered sensitive images of evidence.

In a statement, PC Jordan denied doing anything wrong regarding the images and stated it was common practice for officers to use their phones.

Although the panel accepted this was the case, they determined that the images should have been immediately deleted.

As far as the WhatsApp group, the panel noted the language used was “extremely offensive”.

They added: “PC Jordan accepted that messages on the WhatsApp group were in places, highly offensive, inappropriate but indicated that it was some time ago and that he now realises it was totally inappropriate and wrong.

“The panel finds from the tone of some of the messages, which indicated an awareness that if they were seen by DPS it would have consequences, that the officers including PC Jordan fully knew at the time that the messages were wrong, offensive and liable to cause significant offence.”

Briefings with senior officers revealed “confused and conflicting guidelines” that even within the Met’s senior leadership team were interpreted differently.

Other officers also came forward to report they had used their phones in evidence gathering. This led to a senior leadership team meeting in February 2022, where it was determined that personal phones should never be used for a policing purpose.

After a public misconduct hearing held between November 2025 and February 2026, PC Manning was handed a final written warning for a period of two years and PC Jordan received a final warning for three years.

Both officers were described as “otherwise outstanding” and the panel stated there was a public interest in retaining them in the force.

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