Prosecutors halt Met Police’s ‘absurd’ efforts to prosecute Sarah Everard protesters

Prosecutors have sensationally de meet police‘absurd’ attempts to go after the people who attended the vigil Sarah Everard.

After a vigil organized by new campaign group Reclaim These Streets was aborted over threats of £10,000 fines, a spontaneous vigil took place in Clapham Common, with hundreds of protesters gathering during the day – including the Duchess of Cambridge.

Six protesters, including Dania Al-Obeid and Jeni Edmunds who have openly criticized the police, were accused of breaking Covid rules by attending the vigil, but the Met was vilified by the public for their “absurd and malicious’ attempts to attack these individuals .

But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told lawyers last week that it was to “stop” police attempts to criminalize the six who attended last year’s March 13 vigil because it was not in the public interest. the guard has reported.

The hugely important victory comes as a humbling blow to new Commissioner Mark Rowley whose strength has been to prosecute the women who fought for women’s safety after Everard was murdered by an off-duty Met officer Wayne Couzens.

Everard was kidnapped by Couzens, 49, on his way home to South London, but the former disgraced officer now faces life in prison after evicting the 33-year-old woman from the capital where she was raped and murdered.

Couzens had pretended to enforce Covid rules to get Everard into his vehicle.

Dania Al-Obeid, who was handcuffed and arrested during the vigil, informed the Met that she would take legal action over how the vigil was monitored, including how she was treated.

She said: “This is a victory in itself, but it does not hold the Met responsible for their actions during the vigil or for their decisions to criminalize me and others for standing up and speaking out more than a year later.”

Jeni Edmunds, also one of the six targets, was happy with the decision but questioned the abuse of power used by the Met.

“That the police used the same power that was used to coerce Sarah Everard into her murder to arrest mourners during her vigil speaks volumes,” she said.

Ms Edmunds, who works at a legal charity Inquest, said she attended the vigil in response to Met officers’ behavior towards murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, as well as Sarah Reed who committed suicide after a police attack.

Commenting on prosecutors dropping attempts to criminalize protesters, the Met’s assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe told MailOnline: “We know how important it was for people to remember Sarah Everard and express their anger.

Officials took their duty very seriously to protect the public during the pandemic and balance this with the rights of individuals.

“The decision to prosecute in these circumstances is entirely a matter for the CPS.”

Mrs Al-Obeid, 27, from Stratford, East London, Vivien Hohmann, 20, from Clapham, Ben Wheeler, 21, from Kennington, South London, and Kevin Godin-Prior, 68, from Manchester, were all locked behind doors condemned under the common legal action.

Unrepentant Met agents justified the arrests by claiming the meeting had turned into an “anti-police protest” and that they felt “need.”

Ms. Al-Obeid, a marketing manager, was “devastated” after being sentenced behind closed doors because she felt she couldn’t even fight it.

She would face the CPS U-turn after alleging she was not given a platform to plead not guilty — along with the others.

The Met was heavily criticized for splitting up crowds and arresting protesters on Clapham Common as they trampled on flowers on display in tribute.

Pippa Woodrow, attorney for Ms Al-Obeid and Ms Edmunds, said on social media: “Like I said, I’m happy for my clients, but here’s a lesson. Protest is indispensable to our democracy and values. These cases provide insight into what happens if we lose sight of that. Powers used to silence those we dislike and turn against those we do.’

The lawyer hopes the Met will now focus its resources on protecting women from violence rather than trying to silence those who speak out against it.

More than a year after the vigil, the Supreme Court rules that Scotland Yard failed to take into account the human rights of freedom of expression. It also stressed that the Covid laws had been misinterpreted at the time.

But this didn’t stop the Met from continuing their effort to convict the six protesters.

Ms Al-Obeid has raised £6,000 as she seeks to take the violence and take legal action against them – following a lawsuit from Patsy Stephenson, whose famous photo was taken while handcuffed and held by officers during the same wake, though she wasn’t one of the six that followed the Met.