Two Met Police officers and an ex-officer have denied sharing grossly abusive messages with Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens.
PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court between April and August 2019 and were charged with the offences.
Couzens, 49, murdered Ms Everard last year while serving as a Met officer.
All three defendants were released on bail and the trial was set for July 28.
PC Cobban, from Didcot, Oxfordshire, has been charged with four counts of sending a grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or threatening message over a public electronic communications network, while PC Neville, from Weybridge, Surrey, has been charged with two counts of the same offence.
Former Met officer Mr Borders, from Preston, Lancashire, faces five counts of the same charge.
The alleged offenses happened two years before Couzens kidnapped Sarah Everard in a sham arrest in March 2021 before raping and murdering the 33-year-old marketing executive.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) previously said the charges stem from an investigation into Couzens’ phone records.
In court, the three spoke only to confirm their names, addresses and dates of birth and to plead not guilty to each of the charges during an approximately 20-minute hearing.
The Met said serving officers had been suspended from duty.
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