Two parents who were arrested after complaining about their daughter's primary school on WhatsApp have said they feel 'vindicated' after Hertfordshire police admitted the arrest was unlawful and agreed a £20,000 payout.
Rosalind Levine, 47, and Maxie Allen, 50, were held at a police station for 11 hours in January after six uniformed officers arrested them on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property. The couple had previously been banned from entering Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood after criticising its headteacher and leadership in a parents' WhatsApp group.
Hertfordshire Constabulary originally defended the arrest, saying it was necessary to fully investigate the allegations. However, the force's lawyers later admitted that the criteria for arrest under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 were not met, 'therefore rendering the arrest unlawful'. The force agreed to pay £10,000 to each parent, a sum it considered 'significantly above that required by the case law'.
Allen, a Times Radio producer, said: 'We do feel vindicated. We are pleased that they recognised this was a pretty serious mistake.' He added that the incident had impacted their three-year-old daughter, who witnessed her mother being led away by police. Levine described the arrest as 'a really horrible experience', saying: 'You lose your liberty, you lose your freedom.'
The couple had been in dispute with the school after raising concerns about the recruitment of a new headteacher. The school's governors had warned parents about 'inflammatory and defamatory' comments on social media. After being banned from the premises, the pair said they emailed the school 'regularly' about the needs of their disabled daughter. An officer warned them about the emails in December, telling them to remove their daughter from the school, which they did a week before the arrests.
A Hertfordshire police spokesperson said: 'Whilst there are no issues of misconduct involving any officer in relation to this matter, Hertfordshire Constabulary has accepted liability solely on the basis that the legal test around necessity of arrest was not met in this instance. Therefore Mr Haddow-Allen and Ms Levine were wrongfully arrested and detained in January 2025.' Levine expressed concern that others may be similarly affected, calling for police forces to review their actions.
