Essex police sergeant dismissed after football game ban
A police sergeant who was banned from football matches for "tragedy chanting" has been formally dismissed from his force. Tyler Coppin, 29, from Colchester, pleaded guilty in court to a public order offence in connection with an incident at the Liverpool v Chelsea game at Anfield in October. He has now been found to have committed gross misconduct at an Essex Police misconduct hearing.Essex's Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said: "If officers are responsible for upholding the law, it cannot be right that they break it."
Coppin's actions were witnessed by Liverpool FC stewards at the match on 20 October and he was ejected from the stadium and arrested.Merseyside Police said he had been "tragedy chanting". According to the Crown Prosecution Service, tragedy chanting is when fans sing, chant or gesture offensive messages about historical disasters or accidents related to a football club.He pleaded guilty to one offence under the Public Order Act – behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress - at South Sefton Magistrates' Court on Merseyside on 13 December.
'Clear message'
As well as the football banning order, Coppin was ordered to pay fines and costs of £645.At the misconduct hearing, the former sergeant was found to have breached standards of professional behaviour in relation to honesty and integrity, authority, respect and courtesy and discreditable conduct.Mr Harrington acknowledged his officer's remorse and a previously unblemished career in policing, but dismissed Coppin from the force without notice and he will be placed on the College of Policing barred list."It is clear that ex-Sgt Coppin was remorseful and may not have been aware of the impact of his words, but he has been criminally convicted of a public order offence," the chief constable said. "His actions will seriously undermine public trust and confidence and I must send a clear message to officers, staff and the wider public that behaviour such as this cannot and will not be tolerated in policing."
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Further work is ongoing to identify other people affected. 'We will continue to provide that support in the days and weeks to come. 'Due to the number of victims in this case, we have received assistance from neighbouring forces for which we are extremely grateful.' Witness Chelsea Yeun earlier said she was inches away from being struck by the car - and was shocked Water Street was not closed. She said after the parade had finished they had all decided to come off the route on The Strand and walk up the city in an attempt to get home. Chelsea and her friend Francesca went onto Water Street, usually a one-way street, where there was a 'sea of people'. She assumed the council had closed the roads off to allow people to have walking access as the street was just 'jam packed and you couldn't move'. 'We were walking at such a slow pace and when we were walking there wasn't much room around anywhere,' she told Good Morning Britain. She didn't see the car come plummeting towards her and only managed to jump out of the way as she heard a beeping noise and shouts coming from the crowd. Liverpool is waking up after the trophy parade descended into horror in Liverpool Asked if she had the impression that the street had been closed down, she said: 'Yes, obviously it is a main city street and Water Street is a very busy street. I feel like just by the sheer amount of people that we assumed it was closed off, and it should have been closed off. 'As we walked further up, there were railings that were scattered on the floor. I don't know whether those railings were to have the crowds separated or to stop cars coming down. 'It's common sense that there should have been no cars in the immediate city area. But looking at the footage I've seen, after the event on Dale Street there were cars coming up and down. 'The roads absolutely should have been cornered off just for pedestrians with such a big thing coming to the city.' Another woman, Hannah, told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'The roads are closed, how did a car get down there anyway? You see people lying on the floor, all I can remember is just the police going 'everyone go now, now, leave', they ushered us all off and they were screaming.' She said she could hear shouting and then saw people lying on the floor, adding: 'It was just too many people, you couldn't actually see what had happened. 'All you could hear was like shouting, shouting, and I just knew something had happened. The parade was due to leave Allerton Road to travel along Queens Drive at 230pm. The route was along Queens Drive, Mill Bank, West Derby Road, Rocky Lane, West Derby Road, Low Hill, Islington, Hunter Street, Byrom Street, Leeds Street, The Strand and was due to finish at Wapping at 6pm. Police had warned ahead of the parade that there would be a 'rolling road closure'. But they said fixed closures would be in place on The Strand (northbound at 7am, southbound at 12pm), Queens Drive, between The Rocket and Prescot Road (12pm), Queens Drive at Allerton Road (12pm), Mill Bank (1pm) and West Derby Road, between Sheil Road and Everton Road (1pm). There was no mention of Water Street being closed. Ahead of the parade, Merseyside Police said: 'Road closures will be in place to allow the parade to take place safely and the public is advised to either view the parade as close to home as possible, walk or take advantage of public transport. 'Supporters are also being advised to line the whole route to avoid crowding in busy areas.' Chief Inspector Chris Barnes, silver commander for the parade, had said there would be a 'large number of police officers on the streets along the whole parade route who will be providing a reassuring presence and making sure fans can enjoy the parade safely.' He said road closures would be put in place by Liverpool City Council. Water Street was not mentioned as a street that would be closed on the council's website. A key question is how a car managed to get near a parade involving up to a million people given previous incidents of vehicles being driven into crowds. In 2016, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel used a lorry to plough through a crowd in Nice during Bastille Day celebrations on July 14. 86 people were killed and more than 400 injured before the 31-year-old Tunisian was shot dead by police. The following year, vehicles were used in two attacks by terrorists in central London. On March 22 2017, Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Brit, killed four people and injured more than 50 when he drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street. He was also shot dead by an armed police officer. Then just months later, eight people were killed and 48 injured when a van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge. The three men in the van, Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were all shot dead. In two further incidents, 10 people were killed by a van driver in Toronto, Canada, in 2018, while in June 2022, a 59-year-old woman was left with life-changing injuries after driver Luke Geard ploughed into her in Axminster, Devon. In Liverpool, authorities have confirmed the incident is not being treated as terrorism and that the man in custody, a white British male from Liverpool, is believed to have been the driver of the vehicle. Witnesses reported the car was travelling at 30mph and had been sounding its horn as it edged through the dense crowd - prompting angry fans to ask 'what are you doing?' before it suddenly accelerated, swerved, and mounted the pavement. They described how 'all hell broke' loose and people 'were flying in all directions' as car ploughed into the tightly packed crowd for 200 yards. Video circulating online showed the people carrier moving slowly along the crowded street. Pedestrians appeared to stop it and try and pull the driver from the passenger seat, shouting 'what are you doing?' It reversed before suddenly accelerated into the tightly packed crowd of supporters, with witnesses describing the screams of victims and the sickening thud of bodies being flung over the bonnet. The vehicle accelerated veering right then left, travelling across the street mounting the pavement, hitting men, women and even a baby, witnesses said. When the car eventually slowed to a stop, angry fans surged forward hitting it, throwing bottles, screaming 'kill him' as others attempted to lift the vehicle to rescue pedestrians trapped under the wheels. Within seconds, the driver was dragged from his seat before police intervened. The shocking incident took place only days after a run in one of the city's parks to commemorate the lives of the Liverpool fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Ninety-seven football fans were fatally injured in a terrace crush at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989. A source told the Mail that the driver appeared to have 'tailgated' an ambulance down Water Street, which had been closed to traffic. 'It looks as if he has panicked when he realised he was in the crowd and people began banging on his car,' the insider said. 'Instead of going back the way he came he's got angry and put his foot down, it's absolutely devastating.' Mark Leavy told the Mail: 'I will never forget the noise of the people being hit and I will never forget the look on a policeman's face and his uniform covered in blood. 'My God, what he must have seen.' Patrick Milligan, 25, from Wigan said: 'We all had the best day of our lives watching the parade and then it was like a tsunami within about 5 minutes of the parade finishing. It was horrific. 'The car just swerved into the crowd at speed and everyone was screaming.' One victim, Jack Trotter, told the BBC from his hospital bed that he was in 'absolute agony' after he was struck by the car. Mr Trotter, from Newtownards, County Down, had come to the parade from Northern Ireland with his girlfriend, Abbie Gallagher, who narrowly avoided being struck as well. After being discharged from hospital today, he wrote on Instagram: 'Only back from hospital after the most horrifying incident I've ever experienced in my life... genuinely seriously lucky to still be here after this as I just moved out of the way in time.'
