TWO police officers have been sacked after posting offensive messages in a group chat, including a racist joke about the Duchess of Sussex.

Metropolitan Police Constables Sukhdev Jeer and Paul Hefford posted “abhorrent and discriminatory” messages on WhatsApp in 2018.

Their actions amounted to gross misconduct, a tribunal decided on Friday, which led to their dismissal from the force.

The hearing at the Empress State Building in London heard the posts, including one comparing Meghan Markle to a “golliwog” toy, were “discriminatory and serious in nature”.

Messages from former officer Richard Hammond, who was also in the group, were regarded as misconduct by the tribunal panel.

Chairman Maurice Cohen said dismissal “is the only appropriate action”.

It means the men, whose actions were labelled “completely unacceptable” by the Met, cannot be employed by any police bodies across the UK.

The tribunal heard that in one message, PC Jeer shared an image of a “golliwog” toy that was captioned: “A sneak preview at Meghan’s wedding dress.”

Another was of a young boy in a hoodie which was captioned “monkey in the jungle”.

A further post said: “Everyone is so politically correct these days. You can’t even say, ‘Black paint,’ you have to say, ‘Tyrone can you please paint that wall?’”.

Mr Cohen said: “The postings in this group caused serious reputational damage to the Metropolitan Police as a whole.

“They were mocking and discriminatory to many sections of society the Metropolitan Police force was meant to be policing.”

He said the posts took place “over an extended period of time” and that the officers “should have been aware” of their “unacceptable nature”.

He added: “(They) should have been aware these posts were overtly racist, ableist and sexist.”

PC Jeer had previously told the hearing he was “not in a good place” and had used the language to cope with the “issues” he’d been experiencing.

Barrister Ben Summers argued PC Jeer should not be dismissed over a “handful of inappropriate jokes” which caused “limited harm”.

Vishal Misra, representing the Met, said: “They have shown little by the way of remorse and contrition, minimising and deflecting what had been said to excuse behaviour rather than explain.”