Prosecutors have dramatically blocked attempts by the Metropolitan Police to criminalize people for attending a vigil for Sarah Everard in another humiliating blow to Britain’s biggest power.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told lawyers last week that it had “suspended” police attempts to criminalize six protesters because it was not in the public interest.
The result is a significant victory for the women, who described the Met’s determination to attack vigil attendees as “absurd and harmful”.
The decision is also an embarrassing first blow for its new commissioner, Mark Rowley, whose force continues to prosecute women protesting Everard’s abduction, rape and murder at the hands of a serving Met officer.
Abuse survivor Dania Al-Obeid, who was handcuffed and arrested at the vigil on 13 March 2021 and was one of those targeted by the Met, said: “This is a victory in itself, but it does not hold the Met accountable for their actions in time of the vigil or for their decisions to criminalize me and others for standing up and speaking out more than a year later.
Last night, Al-Obeid formally notified the Met that she will now take legal action against the force over its policing of the vigil and its treatment of her.
Another of those targeted, Jenny Edmonds, said: “I’m glad the Met has been forced to give it up. That the police used the same power they abused to coerce Sarah Everard into her murder, to arrest the mourners at her vigil, speaks volumes.
Edmonds added: “I’m so exhausted by this going on for so long, but I’m happy to be in a position where I can be defended. I know that where there is power, there is the potential to abuse it.
Their barrister, Pippa Woodrow of Doughty Street Chambers, said: “I am delighted for Dania and Jenny that this ordeal is over and that the CPS has admitted that they should never have been prosecuted. Attempts by the police to criminalize them are absurd and harmful.
“It can be hoped that the Met will now turn its focus and resources to protecting women from violence, rather than seeking to silence those who speak out against it, and to rebuilding the trust damaged by their decisions in this case.”
The six were accused of breaching Covid lockdown rules by attending the vigil. Some have previously been sentenced behind closed doors under the Single Judiciary Procedure (SJP), including Al-Obeid, who was unaware she had received a criminal record until contacted by the media.
After claiming she was not given the opportunity to plead not guilty, she, along with others, was due to appear in court later this year to try to overturn the convictions.
Everard was abducted by Wayne Cousins on her way home in South London, with the officer pretending to comply with Covid rules to get her into his car. Cousins - now serving a life sentence – drove the 33-year-old woman out of London, where she was raped and murdered.
A new campaign group, Reclaim These Streets, organized a vigil for Everard but was forced to cancel it after the Met said they would face fines of £10,000 each and possible prosecution if it went ahead. Instead, an impromptu vigil was held in Clapham Common, which attracted hundreds, but the decision by forces to disperse the crowd, arresting protesters and trampling on flowers they had laid, provoked widespread outrage.
Edmonds added: “As a survivor of sexual assault like so many, every woman, every person, has the right to go home safe at night. The police don’t protect Sarah and they don’t protect us [at the vigil] that night too. The police were called for their actions, but nothing changed.
The details of the case and the police’s apparent willingness to pursue them have raised several serious questions, lawyers say. More than a year after the vigil, the High Court ruled that Scotland Yard had misinterpreted Covid laws when it tried to block the event and also failed to take into account human rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Despite this decision, the Met went ahead with sentencing the six, in Al-Obeid’s case, more than 15 months after the vigil.
“At that point it became clear – if not before – that the police simply did not understand the meaning in English law of people’s fundamental right to freedom of speech and assembly: to protest,” Woodrow said.
She added that the case raises serious questions about the Met’s use of powers that allow it to prosecute people by a single magistrate and without any oversight.
Marketing manager Al-Obeid said: “I was devastated when I found out. It felt extremely unfair to be judged behind closed doors for standing up for my human rights and our rights just to be safe from violence. I didn’t feel like I could fight it – I wanted to shrink and take up less space. I began to blame myself for ever speaking up. It brought back some of the horrible experiences in my past and took me to a dark place where I didn’t think my voice mattered or that I even had a right to speak. Woodrow described the trial as a “stamping exercise” and was concerned that the controversial SJP had been widened and may have criminalized thousands of potentially innocent people without their knowledge.
Edmonds, who works for the legal charity Inquest, said she was motivated to attend the vigil by the Met officers’ treatment of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman and the case of Sarah Reid, who died by suicide after being attacked by the police and then imprisoned for self-defense against sexual assault.
Following the CPS’s intervention, Al-Obeid announced she would take legal action against the Met and hand over the £6,000 she raised in a week’s worth of legal costs to sue the police over its policing of the vigil.
“The outpouring of support so far has been amazing,” she said.
It follows the launch of similar legal action and a crowdfunding campaign by Patsy Stevenson, who was pictured being handcuffed and held by two police officers during the vigil.
Stevenson said: “The Met fully believe they are right – or they know they are wrong and they try to push and push.”
The civil claims against the Met by Al-Obeid and Stevenson were brought by Rachel Harger of Bindmans, who said: “It is no small feat to take on litigation against a well-funded, publicly funded institution that is also heavily politically supported by the government of the day and I sincerely hope that the public will come together and support Patsy, Denmark and all those who were subjected to such appalling police behavior during the vigil as they seek to hold the police accountable.”
The Met has been approached for comment.
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