Sarah Everard: ‘Reclaim These Streets’ vigil organisers seek legal action after ‘police reverse position on allowing event’

Organisers have sought an urgent order from the High Court over the Metropolitan Police’s interpretation of the law

Organisers of a vigil for Sarah Everard are seeking legal action after claiming the Metropolitan Police reversed its position on allowing the event to go ahead.

The ‘Reclaim These Streets’ group said they plan to bring a High Court appeal on Friday, challenging the force's interpretation of Covid restrictions when read together with human rights law.

In statement, Reclaim These Streets said the Met had told them the force was “trying to navigate a way through” to develop a local policing plan to allow the vigil to take place.

However, the group claimed, the force has since reversed its position.

“The Metropolitan Police have reversed their position and stated that the vigil would be unlawful, that their 'hands are tied' by the Covid-19 regulations and that, as organisers, we could face tens of thousands of pounds in fixed penalty notices and criminal prosecution under the Serious Crimes Act,” the group said in statement.

"We have decided to seek an urgent order from the High Court confirming that the Metropolitan Police's understanding of the law is wrong.

“We hope that this will be heard tomorrow, Friday 12 March, so that the vigil can still go ahead."

Responding to the group’s claims, the Met said the force remained in discussion with organisers about the event.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We understand the public's strength of feeling and are aware of the statement issued by Reclaim The Streets with regard to a planned vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham Common this weekend.

“We remain in discussion with the organisers about this event in light of the current Covid regulations.”

Under the current Covid-19 lockdown in England, people are largely required to stay at home and can only gather in larger groups for limited reasons, such as funerals or for education.

Police can break up illegal gatherings and issue fines of £10,000 for someone holding a gathering of over 30 people.

Reclaim These Streets said it was “always aware of the challenges of organising a Covid-secure vigil, but safety has been a top priority from the beginning”.

It claimed: “When we initially proposed the event, we proactively reached out to Lambeth Council and Metropolitan Police to ensure that the event could safely and legally take place.

“After initially receiving a positive response, we continued to plan and promote the event and continued to update the Council and Police.”

Speaking on behalf of the group, Caitlin Prowle said if it was to lose its legal challenge then it would have to cancel the event and explore other options.

She added: “If we lose we will be facing quite significant fines and we will also be putting anyone who wants to come along at risk of fines as well.”

Ms Prowle said that during planning for the vigil the Metropolitan Police’s “tone changed quite quickly” and that the group’s claims on its alleged reversed position relate to correspondence with the force.

The 33-year-old went missing on March 3
Handout

Another organiser, Anna Burley, said the group had tried to be “thoughtful” with safety measures.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Safety has been a priority from the get go.

“It would be ironic to organise a vigil to think about women’s safety in public spaces without also thinking about the health and safety aspects.”

She said that the location of Clapham Common was in-part chosen as it is a “wide open space”, while organisers had emphasised wearing masks and the importance of social distancing.

She added: “We were trying to be very thoughtful. We had QR codes so that people could do track and trace, and just really trying to work out how we can do this in a really safe way.”

She said there was an “about-face” by the police on the decision to allow the event to go ahead.

“We proactively wrote to the police and the local council,” she said.

“Initially, we had feedback that they were looking at ways to navigate this, that they would be looking at how they could proportionately and appropriately provide community policing to the event.

“And we were in conversation about how we could do that safely so that people could express their anger and their grief without putting themselves or others at risk.

“We then had an about-face mid-afternoon yesterday. We were being put under increasing pressure that individually, we would be at risk for doing so, but as would everybody who attended and all of the women across the country potentially who have been organising sister vigils in their own areas.”

Reclaim These Streets has launched an online fundraiser to raise £30,000 that it said it might need to cover potential legal costs.

This target was stretched to £40,000 as it was exceeded on Thursday night.

If the group wins its legal challenge it said it would donate the money to a women’s charity.

Its statement concluded: “We’ve all been following the tragic case of Sarah Everard over the last week.

“This is a vigil for Sarah, but also for all women who feel unsafe, who go missing from our streets and who face violence every day.”

It said by “forcing us to cancel” the vigil, the police would be “silencing thousands of women like us who want to honour Sarah’s memory and stand up for our right to feel safe on our streets”.

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