Prosecutors have dramatically halted attempts by the Metropolitan Police to criminalize people for attending Sarah Everard’s vigil in another humiliating blow for Britain’s biggest force.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) notified lawyers last week that it had “discontinued” police attempts to criminalize six protesters because it was not in the public interest.
The result is a major victory for women who have described the Met’s determination to target people attending the vigil as “absurd and harmful”.
The decision is also an embarrassing first blow for its new commissioner, Mark Rowley, whose force has remained keen 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 on the eve of 13 March 2021 and was one of those targeted by the Met, said: “This is a victory in itself, but not it holds the Met accountable for their actions in the wake or 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 would now take legal action against the force over its surveillance and conduct towards her.
Another person attacked, Jeni Edmunds, said: “I’m glad the Met have been forced to stop this. That the police used the same power that was being abused to coerce Sarah Everard into murder to arrest mourners during their vigil speaks volumes.”
Edmunds added: “I’m very tired of this for so long, but I’m lucky to be in a position where I can stand up for myself. I know that where there’s power given, there’s the potential for abuse.”
Her barrister, Pippa Woodrow of Doughty Street Chambers, said: “I am delighted for Dania and Jeni that this ordeal is now over and that the CPS has recognized that they should never have been prosecuted. The police’s attempts to criminalize -they have been absurd and harmful.
“It is to be hoped that the Met will now direct its focus and resources towards protecting women from violence rather than seeking to silence those who speak out, and towards rebuilding the trust damaged by its decisions in this case”.
The six were accused of breaching Covid lockdown rules by attending the vigil. Some were previously sentenced behind closed doors under the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), including Al-Obeid, who did not know he had a criminal record until contacted by the media.
After arguing that she had not been given a chance to plead not guilty, she, along with others, was due to go to trial later this year in an attempt to overturn the convictions.
Everard was abducted by Wayne Couzens as she walked home in south London, with the police officer pretending to comply with Covid rules to get her into his car. Couzens, who is now serving a life sentence, drove the 33-year-old 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 force’s decision to break up the crowd, the arrest of protesters and the trampling of flowers they had laid sparked widespread outrage.
Edmunds added: “As a survivor of sexual violence like so many, every woman, every person, has the right to come home safe at night. The police didn’t keep Sarah safe and they didn’t keep us safe [at the vigil] not that night either. The police were called for his actions, but nothing changes.”
The details of the case and the police’s apparent eagerness to prosecute 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 the human rights of freedom of expression and assembly. Despite this ruling, the Met continued to convict the six, in Al-Obeid’s case more than 15 months after the vigil.
“At the time, if not before, it became clear that the police simply had not understood the importance in English law of people’s basic right to freedom of speech and assembly – to protest,” Woodrow said.
He added that the case raised serious questions about the Met’s use of powers that allowed it to prosecute people by a single magistrate and without any oversight.
Marketing director Al-Obeid said: “I was devastated when I found out. To be sentenced behind closed doors for standing up for my human rights, and our rights just to be safe from violence, I found it extremely unfair. I didn’t feel like I could fight it – I felt like shrinking and taking up less space. I started to blame myself for never speaking up. It brought back some of the terrible experiences of my past and it led to a dark place where I didn’t think my voice didn’t matter or that I even had a right to speak.” Woodrow described the process as a “rubber-stamping exercise” and expressed concern that the controversial SJP had expanded and could have criminalized thousands of potentially innocent people without their knowledge.
Edmunds, who works at legal charity Inquest, said she was motivated to attend the vigil by the Met officers’ behavior towards murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman and the case of Sarah Reed, who later killed herself of being assaulted by the police and then imprisoned. for self-defense against sexual assault.
After the CPS intervened, Al-Obeid announced he would take legal action against the Met and hand over the £6,000 he has raised in a week to cover the trial costs of suing the force over its surveillance.
“The support so far has been incredible,” he said.
It follows the launch of a similar legal action and crowdfunding campaign by Patsy Stevenson, who was photographed handcuffed and restrained by two male officers at the vigil.
Stevenson said: “The Met either fully believes they are in the right, or they know they are wrong and are trying to push and push.”
The civil claims against the Met by Al-Obeid and Stevenson are being brought by Bindmans’ Rachel Harger, who said: “It is no small feat to be tasked with litigating a well-resourced, publicly funded institution which also has great political support for the government of the day, and I sincerely hope that the public will come together and support Patsy, Dania and all those who were subjected to such appalling police conduct at the vigil as they seek to make the police responsible”.
The Met has been contacted for comment.