Police officer who shared photo of teenager's dismembered body on WhatsApp facing jail

A police control room worker who shared a picture of a teenager’s dismembered body in a WhatsApp group was arrested after telling a colleague he had also sent it to his girlfriend. Joshua Tilt, 31, used his phone to photograph a ‘highly sensitive’ picture displayed on a computer screen showing 18-year-old Lewis Williams after he had been hit by a train. Lewis, described by his family as ‘popular, funny and kind’, was diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder before his death in Slough, Berkshire, on June 21. Tilt, of Bartley Green, Birmingham, tried to quit the British Transport Police (BTP) after an investigation was launched but the force refused his resignation and sacked him instead. He pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office at the city’s crown court on Friday and warned he will likely be jailed when he returns for sentencing on December 14. In a statement confirming details of the inquiry, BTP said Tilt took a picture on his mobile phone of an image from the scene of a railway fatality. It went on: ‘The highly sensitive image had been received to the Force Control Room by email, as part of our investigation for the coroner’s file.
Read More