Hertfordshire Police Pay £20,000 After Admitting Unlawful Arrest of Parents in School Dispute
Hertfordshire police have agreed to a £20,000 payout to a couple arrested in January following complaints related to their daughter’s primary school, Cowley hill in borehamwood, Hertfordshire. the force has admitted the arrest was unlawful, according to a report in The Times.
Allen,50,and Levine,47,were detained by six uniformed officers on suspicion of harassment,malicious communications,and causing a nuisance on school property.The arrests stemmed from the couple’s criticism of the school’s headteacher and leadership within a parents’ WhatsApp group. Prior to the arrest, they had been banned from entering the school grounds.
The school stated it had “sought advice from police” due to a “high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts” which they claimed were distressing to staff, parents, and governors. Hertfordshire police initially defended the arrests in March, stating they were “routine in these types of matters” and necessary for a full investigation. Though,the investigation afterward concluded with “no further action” taken “due to insufficient evidence.”
This month, the force’s lawyers conceded that the legal criteria for arrest, as outlined in the Police and Criminal Evidence act 1984, were not met, “therefore rendering the arrest unlawful.” Consequently,Hertfordshire police agreed to pay £10,000 each to Allen and Levine,a sum described by the force as “considerably above that required by the case law” and reflecting a “desire to bring matters to a conclusion.”
The dispute began after Allen, a Times Radio producer, made inquiries in May 2024 regarding the recruitment of a new headteacher, which were reportedly rejected. Following a warning from school governors about “inflammatory and defamatory” social media comments and potential action against those causing “disharmony,” Allen and Levine expressed disbelief in a private WhatsApp group, leading to their ban from the school premises.
The couple continued to email the school “regularly” regarding their disabled daughter’s needs. In December, they received a warning from a police officer about the emails and were advised to remove their daughter from the school, which they did the following month, a week before their arrest.
“We cannot fathom what happened; it doesn’t make any sense. We made a few inquiries, we had a bit of banter on a WhatsApp group, and then we were arrested,” Levine told Sky News. allen added that he and Levine were not abusive and were never informed which communications were considered criminal, describing the situation as “completely Kafkaesque.”
Hertfordshire police stated that there are ”no issues of misconduct involving any officer” in relation to the case, but acknowledged that ”the legal test around necessity of arrest was not met in this instance.”
