Jewish mother wins £20k payout after police admit ‘unlawful’ WhatsApp arrest
Hertfordshire Constabulary accepts liability over wrongful arrest of Jewish parents in school WhatsApp row
Hertfordshire Police have admitted unlawfully arresting a Jewish mother and her partner over messages sent in a parents’ WhatsApp group – and have paid the couple £20,000 in damages.
Rosalind Levine and her partner, Times Radio producer and Liberal Democrat councillor Maxie Allen, were held for 11 hours in January after raising concerns about leadership and governance at Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood, where their disabled daughter was enrolled.
The couple confirmed they received formal acknowledgement this week that the arrest had been unlawful. Speaking to the BBC, Allen said it was “an emotional moment” when the force accepted liability.
“We were just really pleased that Hertfordshire Constabulary have recognised that this shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “For us, the main thing really was the liability – that the arrest was unlawful. That’s what mattered most.”
Levine described being arrested in front of one of her children as “deeply traumatic”.
“When they read out the list of things I was being arrested for – malicious communications, harassment, causing a nuisance – I knew they couldn’t possibly have evidence,” she said. “I was pretty shocked.”
She added that the experience had destroyed her trust in the police.“I don’t trust them now. I’m angry mostly for my children.”
Six officers attended the family’s home on 29 January. Both parents were taken into custody and interviewed before being released without charge. Two months later, Hertfordshire Police told them no further action would be taken.
The arrest followed a long-running dispute with Cowley Hill Primary School. According to The Times, the school complained to police after receiving what it called “a high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts”, which is said to have caused “upset to staff, parents, and governors”.
The couple had raised concerns about the recruitment process for a new headteacher and repeatedly contacted the school about support for their neurodivergent, epileptic daughter, who is registered disabled.
A police warning issued in December told the family to remove her from the school, in which they did early in January, a week before the arrests.
Allen said they were never shown the messages used to justify police action.
“When we look back through, the spiciest thing we could find was Roslyn calling one senior person at the school a ‘control freak’. That was the strongest remark we could find,” he said.
Hertfordshire Constabulary said there would be no misconduct proceedings against individual officers but acknowledged that “the legal test around necessity of arrest was not met”.
Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Jonathan Ash-Edwards said: “There has clearly been a fundamental breakdown in relationships between a school and parents that shouldn’t have become a police matter.”
He added: “Parents should be able to raise concerns about public services without worrying they will get a knock at the door from police.”
The case has raised fresh questions about the use of police powers in low-level disputes involving schools and parent groups.
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