{"id":103693,"date":"2025-11-17T22:25:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=103693"},"modified":"2025-11-17T22:25:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:25:32","slug":"police-admit-whatsapp-arrest-error-with-20k-payout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=103693","title":{"rendered":"Police admit WhatsApp arrest error with \u00a320k payout"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 36 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Police have paid out \u00a320,000 in damages for unlawfully arresting a couple after they made complaints about their daughter\u2019s primary school, including on a WhatsApp group chat.<\/p>\n

Rosalind Levine and Maxie Allen said it was an \u201cemotional moment\u201d when Hertfordshire Police accepted liability after they were wrongly held for 11 hours on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just really pleased that Hertfordshire Constabulary have recognised that this shouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d Mr Allen told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Hertfordshire Police said the \u201clegal test around necessity of arrest was not met in this instance,\u201d but there were no issues of misconduct involving any officer.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Allen said the couple felt relieved when they received the acknowledgement saying they had been wrongfully arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite an emotional moment when we got the news from the police a couple of days ago,\u201d said Mr Allen.<\/p>\n

He added, the fact the police paid damages and costs was significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for us, the main thing really was the liability that the arrest was unlawful. That\u2019s what mattered most to us,\u201d added Mr Allen.<\/p>\n

Ms Levine said six officers turned up to the family\u2019s home on 29 January and arrested her in front of one of the couple\u2019s children, who was aged three.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they read out the list of things that I was being arrested for, malicious communications, harassment, causing a nuisance on the school premises, I knew that I hadn\u2019t done any of those things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty shocked and knew absolutely that they wouldn\u2019t have any evidence against us,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

According to The Times, the couple said they were banned from entering Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood after questioning the recruitment process for a head teacher and criticising the leadership in a WhatsApp group for parents.<\/p>\n

The parents said they emailed the school \u201cregularly\u201d following the ban to address issues relating to the needs of their disabled daughter, who has epilepsy and is neurodivergent.<\/p>\n

The couple were arrested in January but, two months later, the force said no further action would be taken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The school said it sought advice from the police after receiving a \u201chigh volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts\u201d, which it said had been upsetting for staff, parents and governors.<\/p>\n

A police officer issued a warning to the family in December, telling them to take their daughter out of school, which they did the next month.<\/p>\n

But a week after that, on 29 January, Mr Allen said six police officers turned up at his home.<\/p>\n

Mr Allen, who is a Times Radio producer and Liberal Democrat councillor on Hertsmere Borough Council, denied using abusive or threatening language, \u201ceven in private\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said a letter was sent by the chair of governors to all parents \u201cwarning them about what he described as inflammatory comments on social media\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Allen said: \u201cWhen that was used in context with us, they never actually told us what it was we said that was so terrible, because they\u2019ve never disclosed the WhatsApps that they got hold of.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when we look back through, the spiciest thing that we could find was Roslyn calling one senior person at the school a control freak, and that was the strongest remark we could find.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowley Hill Primary School contacted police after claiming the parents\u2019 private and public communications had caused upset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ms Levine said the experience had affected her attitude towards the police and left her feeling very upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t trust them [the police],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m angry mostly for my children,\u201d one of whom witnessed her arrest.<\/p>\n

Mr Allen, who was previously a governor at his child\u2019s school, believed some people may have taken against his stance on the hiring of a new head teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked some awkward questions about the head teacher recruitment process because I had been a governor of the school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I knew how the school was meant to work and I wanted things to be done properly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire, Jonathan Ash-Edwards, said: \u201cThere has clearly been a fundamental breakdown in relationships between a school and parents that shouldn\u2019t have become a police matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PolicePolice have paid out \u00a320,000 in damages for unlawfully arresting a couple after they made complaints about their daughter’s primary school, including on a WhatsApp group chat.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12687,1910,10,9,1329],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arrest-error","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-whatsapp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}