Councillor stripped of post after dead cops ‘joke’

An Ilkeston councillor, who made a sick ‘joke’ about the two policewomen shot dead last week in Greater Manchester, has been stripped of his post.

Cllr David Stephenson, who represents Little Hallam on Erewash Borough Council, made a comment to the wife of a serving police officer with the Nottinghamshire force, who lives in Ilkeston.

He reportedly told her ‘If you get 100 points for shooting one policewoman and 200 points for shooting two policewomen, how many do you get for shooting a lawyer?’

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The Tory councillor has now been kicked off the council’s executive cabinet where he sat as lead member for resources.

And leader Cllr Chris Corbett revealed he would never represent the party again after being removed from the list of approved Conservative candidates, meaning he will not be able to stand for re-election as a Tory.

Cllr Stephenson has now admitted he made the remarks which he says he regrets.

But when Sgt Jason Farrar, whose wife was told the joke, contacted Cllr Stephenson he was reportedly told to ‘go away, you silly man’.

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WPCs Bone and Hughes were killed as they went to answer a routine 999 call to a suspected house burglary in Hattersley, Greater Manchester, last Tuesday.

Dale Cregan, 29, has been charged with their murder and the murders of two other men, father and son David and Mark Short, in two separate attacks earlier in the year.