Dustin Boone, 35, Randy Hayes, 31, and Christopher Myers, 27, are accused of beating a 22-year-old black police officer so badly that he couldn’t eat and lost around nine kilograms of weight.

The assault is alleged to have taken place during protests in St Louis against the acquittal of a white police officer who fatally shot a young black man.

The three cops, as well as colleague Bailey Colletta, 25, have also been charged with destroying evidence.

Prosecutors have released text messages which allegedly show the officers bragging to each other about assaulting protesters.

In one text, Boone allegedly wrote: “It’s gonna be a lot of fun beating the hell out of these s—-heads once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us apart!!!!”