Tuesday 7 June 2022 05:13 PM Unrepentant Met cops justify heavy-handed arrests at Sarah Everard vigil trends now
Unrepentant Metropolitan Police officers justified their heavy-handed crackdown at a Clapham Common vigil held for Sarah Everard by claiming that the gathering was morphing into an 'anti-police protest', it has emerged.
Scotland Yard is prosecuting six people they claim broke Covid lockdown rules at the vigil on March 13 last year, when hundreds assembled at the bandstand in the South London park following Miss Everard's kidnapping, rape and murder by 'evil' Met cop Wayne Couzens.
The event had originally been organised by Reclaim These Streets, who cancelled it after the Met said it should not go ahead, and no definitive answer on the matter was provided by the High Court.
But people turned up throughout the day, and officers did not intervene for the first six hours while many came to lay flowers, with the Duchess of Cambridge also paying her respects.
It has now emerged that police have defended their widely-condemned actions, saying that they faced resistance when they tried to break up the gathering using draconian Covid powers.
Witness statements given in Westminster Magistrates' Court reveal that the Met officers feared being attacked by the attendees and were apparently branded 'murderers' by some in the crowd.
According to PC Alexander Davis: 'The mood of the crowd had also shifted from showing respect to Sarah Everard to anti-police protest. Over the course of the early evening the crowd size of the vigil increased to the 1000 strong members and it quickly became an anti-police demonstration.'
A woman being arrested at a vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham Common, March 13, 2021
Left, Sarah Everard. Right, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick
The Standard reports that he said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist gave the order at around 7pm for the crackdown to begin, including arrests of women who were standing by the bandstand.
PC Darryl Mayne said in a witness statement that attendees shouted 'go away', 'murderers' and 'arrest your own' as the scene turned sour.
And in his statement to the court, Inspector Dave Laurie said: 'I remember feeling sad that what started out as a vigil with people adhering to the coronavirus regulations had changed significantly and that I wasn't convinced people were there to solely pay their respects in remembrance of Sarah Everard, and that they did not intend to leave the area any time soon.'
Wayne Couzens was given a whole life sentence at the Old Bailey in September after admitting Sarah Everard's murder
MailOnline has contacted Scotland Yard for comment.
Campaigners have voiced their fury after it was revealed that four of the six cases will be heard in secret under the Single Justice Procedure, a paper-based process not held in open court.
Dania 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 named on the court papers.
The Met said Jade Spence,
