Mason O’Connor

Introduction

Mason O’Connor is a former police constable with London’s Metropolitan Police Service who was attached to Charing Cross police station in central London, serving on the Central West Command Unit. He became the thirteenth serving Metropolitan Police officer to be dismissed since the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launched an investigation in October 2025, in the wake of the BBC Panorama documentary “Undercover in the Police,” which exposed racism, misogyny and a culture of violence at the central London station. A misconduct hearing held on Tuesday, 15 September 2026 found that, while off-duty in a pub, O’Connor had told a female colleague: “I hope you get raped on your way to Waterloo.” The panel found the allegation proven and that he breached standards of professional behaviour for authority, respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, and discreditable conduct, and he was dismissed from the force.

Background Information

Unlike most of the officers caught up in the Charing Cross scandal, O’Connor did not appear in the Panorama footage itself. The documentary, broadcast in October 2025 after seven months of undercover filming by a Panorama journalist at the station, showed officers calling for immigrants to be shot, boasting about excessive use of force, and joking about rape and sexual assault. O’Connor came to light afterwards: the Met said he was reported to a “proactive wider investigation” into other concerns about officer conduct at Charing Cross that was launched after the programme aired, and he became the thirteenth officer sacked since that investigation began. The specific incident against him dated to October 2024, before the documentary was broadcast. Details of O’Connor’s age, length of service or prior disciplinary record were not reported in the coverage of his dismissal, and no public response from O’Connor himself was reported.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

The finding against Mason O’Connor comes from a Metropolitan Police misconduct panel, which is an adjudicated disciplinary outcome. It is not a criminal conviction, and no criminal charge against him was reported. The comment is described as reported by the BBC, the Guardian, the Independent and the Metropolitan Police.

At the hearing on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, the disciplinary panel heard that O’Connor, while off-duty at a pub in October 2024, told a female colleague that he hoped she would be raped on her way home. The comment, as reported by the Met, the BBC and the Guardian, was: “I hope you get raped on your way to Waterloo.” The matter was reported after Panorama aired, as part of the proactive wider investigation the Met launched into any other concerns about officer conduct at Charing Cross, and it reached the panel through that process rather than through the documentary footage itself. The hearing found the allegation proven and that PC O’Connor breached standards of professional behaviour for authority, respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, and discreditable conduct. The outcome placed him within a much wider reckoning: the Panorama film had already shown officers boasting about violence against suspects and joking about rape and sexual assault, behaviour Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley had called “totally unacceptable” at the time.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The immediate consequence was O’Connor’s dismissal from the Metropolitan Police, announced on 15 September 2026, with the Met confirming he had become the thirteenth serving officer to lose his job since the IOPC investigation began. His sacking was reported by the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent as part of the continuing fallout from the Panorama documentary. It came just weeks after the dismissal of PC Lloyd Hunter, the twelfth officer, who in unaired Panorama footage was seen saying he enjoyed “Tasering people” and that he hated homeless people. Met Commander Simon Messinger, from the force’s professionalism department, said of the pair: “Two more officers have now been dismissed for their appalling comments and attitudes.” “I hope this sends a very clear message about the standards we expect from all our officers and the Met’s determination to improve our culture across the organisation,” he added, saying the force would continue to support the ongoing IOPC investigation. Beyond the thirteen dismissed officers, the IOPC said two former officers had also been found to have committed gross misconduct, and that it was still investigating the conduct of a further fifteen officers or police staff.

Current Status

Mason O’Connor is no longer a serving police officer. His dismissal took effect following the misconduct hearing on 15 September 2026, and both O’Connor and Hunter are to be added to the College of Policing’s barred list, preventing them from rejoining policing or working for a number of other police-related bodies. The Guardian reported that both men will be barred from rejoining the police force. The wider investigation that caught him remains active: IOPC director of engagement Amanda Rowe said, “This is one of our largest ever investigations in terms of the number of officers investigated,” and that “the sheer number of fast-tracked disciplinary proceedings show how seriously the IOPC and the Met, who held the misconduct hearings, are treating this matter.” The IOPC also confirmed that misconduct had been identified from BBC footage which was never included in the Panorama broadcast, and that a further gross misconduct hearing was scheduled over a detention officer’s comments about the treatment of people in custody.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For O’Connor, the career cost was total and immediate. A single off-duty comment, made in a pub nearly a year before it caught up with him, ended his employment with the Metropolitan Police and, through the barred list, closed the door on rejoining any police force in Britain or working for a range of police-related bodies. His name is now permanently attached to one of the largest police misconduct scandals in the Met’s modern history, as the thirteenth officer removed in connection with the Charing Cross investigation — a case the IOPC described as one of the largest it has ever run by the number of officers investigated. The Met framed the dismissals as a cultural turning point, with Commander Messinger saying he hoped the message about expected standards would reach “all our officers” as the force works to improve its culture across the organisation. No details of O’Connor’s personal circumstances, plans or response to his dismissal were reported in the coverage.