Team GB Athlete Bianca Williams Speaks Out Against Fundraiser For Sacked Officers
“I feel like everyone has a right to do a crowdfund, but in the circumstances, it’s quite shocking, saying they shouldn’t have lost their jobs. But they lied and there has to be a punishment—they lost their jobs for that.”
Team GB athlete Bianca Williams has criticised a fundraiser supporting two former Metropolitan Police officers who were dismissed after a stop and search incident. Almost £140,000 has been donated to the JustGiving fund so far.
Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were sacked on Wednesday (Oct. 25) after a disciplinary panel found their actions during a “highly distressing” stop and search of Ms. Williams and her partner, Portuguese sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos, amounted to gross misconduct.
In July 2020, the couple were handcuffed and searched on suspicion of drugs after they were followed by police as they drove to their home in Maida Vale with their three-month-old son. The investigation found PC Clapham and PC Franks lied about smelling cannabis in Mr. Dos Santos’ car and had breached professional standards of police behaviour in relation to honesty and integrity.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct brought the case against the officers and said that the detention of Mr. Dos Santos and Ms. Williams was “because they were Black” and was “excessive, unreasonable and unjustified”.
Speaking on BBC’s Radio 4’s Woman's Hour, the 29-year-old sportsperson said: “I feel like everyone has a right to do a crowdfund, but in the circumstances, it’s quite shocking, saying they shouldn’t have lost their jobs. But they lied and there has to be a punishment—they lost their jobs for that.”
Former officer-turned-author Alice Vinten condemned the donations in a social media post, saying the officers had been “dismissed for lying about smelling cannabis during a stop and search on a Black couple and their baby. Is this what we do now? Raise money for lying cops?”
Speaking to the BBC after the ruling, Mrs. Williams said: “It shouldn’t have taken three years to get to this result but I am happy that this is the result and this is, like I said, a huge step in the right direction for people who continue to get stopped by the police and have that same old excuse about smelling of cannabis when nothing has been found.”
