Fire chiefs talked about wanting to 'kill' and harm female colleagues in ... trends now
Two chief fire officers are under investigation over claims they exchanged sexist and derogatory messages about women including talking about killing a female colleague.
Shropshire chief fire officer Simon Hardiman and his deputy Adam Matthews are alleged to have described women in the service as 'lazy' and 'useless' in WhatsApp exchanges sent over more than a year.
Several of the messages - which were leaked to ITV news - targeted Area Manager Jan Morris, who resigned from the service this year.
In one message sent in February last year Matthews reportedly said: 'She does the square root of f*** all.
In March 2023 he added: 'I've got no loyalty to the lazy cow' before sharing a cartoon GIF of someone being thrown under a bus.'
Shropshire chief fire officer Simon Hardiman (left) and his deputy Adam Matthews (right) described women in the service as 'lazy' and 'useless' in WhatsApp exchanges sent over more than a year
Several of the messages - which were leaked to ITV news - targeted Area Manager Jan Morris, who resigned from the service this year (NOTE: This is a mock-up of the texts and not the actual ones sent)
When Ms Morris posted on LinkedIn the same month asking for help finding a company which made uniforms for female firefighters, Matthews shared the post on WhatsApp and wrote: 'She is having a whinge on LinkedIn again, that's the reason this gender s*** pisses me off, constantly rammed down our throats.'
Mr Hardiman wrote in March 2022: 'At least she had a positive effect on the gender pay gap,' before adding several laughing emojis.
In another message he wrote about sending a job advert to her from another service before asking 'does that look too forceful?'.
In June 2022, Hardiman stated simply: 'I've calmed down now but I could still kill her buddy.'
Both men were promoted to their current roles shortly after sending some of the messages. Ms Morris claims they wanted her to leave the service because she is a woman, despite the fact that she has an unblemished career spanning 26 years.
She said: 'This is not how I wanted to end my career in the fire and rescue service. I should be stepping out the door proud as punch not through the back door because people have forced me into it.'
She described the messages as 'vile and disgusting'
