Parents arrested for WhatsApps say police have paid £20k damages

A couple arrested after making complaints about their daughter’s primary school, including comments made on WhatsApp, said police had paid them £20,000 in compensation.

Rosalind Levine and Maxie Allen he told the Times in March They were detained for 11 hours on suspicion of harassment, malicious communication and creating a disturbance on school property.

Hertfordshire Police previously said the arrests were “necessary to fully investigate the allegations”.

Ms Levine, of Borehamwood, told BBC police she accepted responsibility for the unlawful detention and paid £20,000 plus costs. BBC News has asked Hertfordshire Police for comment.

Ms. Levine added that she was “very pleased” with the outcome.

“We can now start to put this whole thing behind us,” he said.

The couple said they were banned from Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood after a headteacher questioned the recruitment process and criticized the leadership in a parents’ WhatsApp group, the Times reported.

Parents said they had been emailing the school “regularly” following the ban to address issues relating to the needs of their daughter, who has epilepsy, is neurodivergent and is registered disabled.

The school said it had sought advice from police after a “high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts” which it said were distressing for staff, parents and governors.

In December, a police officer warned the family to remove their daughter from school, which they did the following month.

But a week later, on January 29, Mr. Allen said six police officers showed up at his home.

Mr Allen, a Times Radio producer, denied using abusive or threatening language “even in his private life”.

Police said they were reviewing the investigation and Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Jonathan Ash-Edwards said: “There is clearly a fundamental breakdown in relations between the school and parents which should not have become a police matter.”

Ms. Levine had previously said she still had concerns about “how and why our arrests were signed by an investigator.”

“This decision seriously affected both of our children. Our three-year-old had to witness his parents being taken away by a group of police officers, and my 80-year-old mother became physically ill as a result of it later that day,” he said.

“I hope our case highlights the failings within the police force and the chief constable ensures this never happens again.”