Saturday 13 August 2022 07:16 PM Prosecutors halt Met Police's 'absurd' efforts to prosecute Sarah Everard vigil ... trends now
Prosecutors have sensationally halted the Met Police's 'absurd' efforts to go after the people who attended the vigil for Sarah Everard.
After a vigil organised by new campaign group Reclaim These Streets was aborted following threats of £10,000 fines, a spontaneous vigil took place at Clapham Common which brought together hundreds of protesters throughout the day - including the Duchess of Cambridge.
Six protesters were accused of flouting Covid rules by attending the vigil but the Met were vilified by the public for their 'absurd and damaging' attempts to target these individuals.
But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) notified lawyers last week that it was to 'discontinue' police attempts to criminalise the six - who attended the March 13 vigil last year - as it was not in the public interest, The Guardian has reported.
The hugely significant victory deals a humbling blow to new commissioner Mark Rowley whose force were insistent on prosecuting the women fighting for women's safety after Everard was murdered by a serving Met officer Wayne Couzens.
Everard was abducted by Couzens, 49, on her way home in south London but the former disgraced officer now faces a whole-life sentence after driving the 33-year-old woman out of the capital where she was raped and murdered.
Protesters who attended Sarah Everard's vigil clashed with the Met Police after officers tried to arrest people for flouting Covid laws
Couzens had pretended to be enforcing Covid rules to get Everard into his vehicle.
Dania Al-Obeid, an abuse survivor who was handcuffed and arrested at the vigil, informed the Met that she would be launching legal action over the way the vigil was policed, including how she was treated.
She said: 'This is a victory in its own right but it doesn’t hold the Met accountable for their actions at the vigil or for their decisions to criminalise me and others for standing up and speaking out over a year later.'
Abuse survivor Dania Al-Obeid was arrested and handcuffed at the March 13 vigil on Clapham Common in 2021
Jeni Edmunds was also targeted by the Met for attending the vigil and has questioned the force's abuse of power. Pictured: At Westminster Magistrates' Court, London, for a case management hearing to challenge her Covid fine she received
Fellow abuse survivor Jeni Edmunds, who was another one of the six targeted, was happy with the decision but questioned the abuse of power that the Met used.
'That police used the same power abused to coerce Sarah Everard to her murder to arrest mourners at her vigil speaks volume,' she said.
Ms Edmunds, who works at a legal charity Inquest,
