Woman arrested at Sarah Everard vigil hits out at ‘disgraceful’ police presence

Memorial site at the Clapham Common Bandstand, following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard in London
Patsy Stevenson was detained by police
REUTERS
Luke O'Reilly14 March 2021

A woman arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil has criticised the Met Police's presence at Clapham Common.

Patsy Stevenson was detained by police as officers clashed with attendees at the event organised to remember the life of the murder victim.

The event in Clapham, south London, was largely peaceful, but scuffles broke out at the front of a crowd as police surrounded a bandstand covered in floral tributes to the 33-year-old marketing executive.

Ms Stevenson was one of several women led away by police in handcuffs - to shouts and screams from onlookers.

The Met have come under fire for how they policed the vigil
PA Wire

In an interview with socialist media outlet Counterfire she slammed the police presence at the vigil as "disgraceful".

"The fact that the police turned up was just disgraceful because before then it was a peaceful protest", she said.

"I was arrested by police for standing there. I wasn’t doing anything, they threw me to the floor."

"They have pictures of me on the floor being arrested. I’m 5ft 2 and I weigh nothing."

"Several police were on my back trying to arrest me. They arrested me in cuffs and dragged me away surrounded by 10 police officers."

Reclaim These Streets Hold Vigils For Sarah Everard
The bandstand at Clapham Common
Getty Images

Ms Stevenson said that after being hauled over to a police van she was let off with a fine.

"When I got in the van they said ‘all we need is your name and address and then we’ll let you go with a fine’, so I don’t see the point of the arrest to be honest.”

She was asked: “In your opinion what should we do next?"

Ms Stevenson replied: "What should we do next? Bigger protest!"

Home Secretary Priti Patel and London mayor Sadiq Khan have called for an independent investigation into the Metropolitan Police’s actions at a vigil in memory of Sarah Everard.

Ms Patel asked the Chief Inspector of Constabulary to conduct a “lessons learned” review after officers clashed with crowds who gathered to remember the 33-year-old on Clapham Common.

Ms Dick has said that she welcomes an independent investigation into how the vigil was policed.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in