Police officer asked colleague to play ‘snog, marry, avoid’ game using sex worker and suspect images

Police officers played a game of “snog, marry, avoid” using photos of suspects and sex workers, a tribunal has heard.

A female constable from Derbyshire Police showed colleagues photos of women of mixed race and colour and asked her Asian colleague whether he liked them.

The game was “crass and inappropriate” and cast no one from Pear Tree station in Derby who participated in it in a good light, the tribunal members said.

Shafarat Mohammed, who quit as a police constable after just 10 months, tried to sue Derbyshire police for discrimination and harassment over the game and other incidences, making a string of claims he said were based on his race and religion.

The tribunal dismissed his claims, saying they did not amount to religious discrimination and his written evidence had a tendency towards exaggeration and was “quite vague” in respect of many of his claims.

The panel members added in their written judgement: “We found that the claimant rowed back on several of the strong assertions that he made in his witness statement when under cross-examination.”

They said Mr Mohammed, who was of Pakistani heritage, exaggerated events “to put a retrospective discriminatory spin on them”.

The claimant said that in May or June 2023, he was asked by a female PC, Kate Northridge, to look at photographs of “black female suspects” and comment on whether he liked them.

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“The claimant was offended and embarrassed by the conversation and alleges the line of questioning was inappropriate and racially motivated,” the tribunal said.

Members said the polite name of the game was “snog, marry, avoid”.

But it was agreed that PC Northridge showed photographs of female sex workers of various ethnicities – Black, Asian, and white.

The claimant alleged that PC Northridge asked questions about one specific photograph, asking him what he liked about her.

The panel concluded: “The ‘game’ was crass and inappropriate. It casts no one who participated in it in a good light.”

It was possible that the conduct could constitute harassment of a sexual nature but no such claim was made, they said.

“We find that the claimant’s inconsistency on the colour of the sex workers whose pictures he was shown (he alleged they were all black, only to agree that they were of mixed race and colour) undermines his credibility on the point about being directed to a picture of a Black sex worker and asked a question about her.

“We find that that part of the claimant’s allegation is not credible,” the tribunal ruled, but members agreed that the questions were inappropriate.

Mr Mohammed’s other claims included another female colleague, Abigail Lynam, saying: “Shaf, you’re s***.”

The panel agreed that witnesses for the police force said that PC Lynam could be abrupt with colleagues, irrespective of their colour, ethnicity, or other protected characteristics.

He also claimed he was excluded from social events and sandwich runs. But his evidence was inconsistent, the members said.

“As with many of the claimant’s allegations, there was an element of truth in the allegation that quickly evaporated under cross-examination and/or the more credible evidence of the respondent’s witnesses,” the tribunal concluded.