Top cop DEFENDS sending six officers to arrest parents who complained about school teachers in WhatsApp group
A TOP cop has defended sending six officers to arrest parents who moaned about teachers in a WhatsApp group.
Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine were detained on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications after complaining about their daughter’s school recruitment process.
The livid couple were cuffed at their home over what they dubbed “trivial” dispute with Cowley Primary School in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
CCTV footage showed officers leading them away in front of their crying daughter Sascha.
Maxie and Rosalind were then forced to spend eight hours in a cell before a five-week investigation was launched by Herts., Police.
The force ultimately decided there was no case to pursue.
But Hertfordshire’s chief constable has since defended the arrests, although admitted “with the benefit of hindsight we could have achieved the same ends in a different way”.
Andy Prophet backed his officers and said “there was a lawful reason to arrest”.
“I’ve looked at the footage, I understand why a member of the public would look at that and think that feels a bit over the top,” he told The Times.
“With the benefit of hindsight I think we could have done that and should have done that differently.
“We may have needed six people but they didn’t all need to be uniformed officers.”
He admitted three marked vehicles and a police van were unnecessary and “one or two uniformed officers” would have been sufficient.
Harassment and malicious communication laws
According to the Malicious Communications Act 1988 an offence consists of:
- A message that is indecent or grossly offensive
- A threat
- Information that is false and is known or believed to be false by the sender
- This also includes any article or electronic communication that is of an indecent or grossly offensive nature.
The above only applies if the sender’s purpose was to cause distress.
And the force turned up empty handed after their five-week probe found there was never abusive or threatening language used in any of the WhatsApps.
Times Radio producer Maxie, 50, said the action was “dystopian” and a “massive overreach”.
He accused Cowley Hill of trying to “silence awkward parents”.
He told The Times: “I was just in complete disbelief. It was just unfathomable to me that things had escalated to this degree.
“It was absolutely nightmarish. I couldn’t believe this was happening, that a public authority could use the police to close down a legitimate inquiry.
“We’d never used abusive or threatening language, even in private, and always followed due process. Yet we have never even been told what these communications were that were supposedly criminal, which is completely Kafkaesque.”
Their arrest had been approved because it was believed they wouldn’t voluntarily come in for an interview, said Prophet.
The couple came under investigation after Cowley Hill initially reported them to police in June.
They were accused of a “campaign through social media of harassment”.
Herts., Police said they spoke to both parties to offer advice – although this is denied by Maxie and Rosalind.
A decision was made to ban the parents from the school due to “unpleasant, persistent and undermining but not threatening” comments.
A formal harassment report was filed after the couple then sent 20 more emails to Cowley Hill in December.
Maxine admitted an officer spoke to them and asked them not to contact the school anymore, and pull their daughter out, which they complied with.
But by the following month the school alleged there was “more persistent contact and communication” – which Maxine denied.
He said it was misleading and the pair had only emailed for reasons surrounding Sascha’s epilepsy.
The dad argued Herts., Police “played along” with the school’s claims.
Maxine said: “I challenge the police to provide evidence of online harassment or unpleasant emails.”
Meanwhile Prophet still maintained there was “lawful reason to arrest” after reading a statement from the Cowley Hill’s head teacher Louise Thomas.
He said: “The law — and I’m answerable to the law — defines harassment really clearly as any behaviour causing alarm, harassment and distress.
“There was a lawful reason to arrest. With the benefit of hindsight we could have achieved the same ends in a different way… we probably could have had a conversation.”
Maxine has pressed the force on why Prophet was unable to speak on the fact the threshold for malicious communications or causing a nuisance on school property was not met.