The Metropolitan Police has paid out £10,000 to a woman arrested at a vigil for Sarah Everard.
Jennifer Edmunds was arrested on 13 March, 2021, as she mourned Everard, who had died at the hands of policeman Wayne Couzens.
At the vigil for the 33-year-old victim, Met officers clashed with crowds due to COVID rules and arrested a number of people.
Ms Edmunds was among those who were arrested, and she was held overnight in a police station before being given a penalty notice for breaching COVID regulations.
She refused to pay and was charged, but the prosecution was later dropped on 8 August, 2022.
Ms Edmunds then sued the Met Police, and this month the force agreed to pay her £10,000 in compensation.
This is not the first payout the force has made related to its handling of the vigil, which drew widespread criticism.
Patsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid were both arrested before winning payouts from the force as well.
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A planned socially distanced event proposed by Reclaim These Streets was cancelled when organisers were threatened by the force with £10,000 fines.
However, people turned up throughout the day – including the then Duchess of Cambridge – and by the evening, hundreds of people had gathered and refused to leave when asked by police, leading to clashes.
Photographs circulated of women being handcuffed on the ground, sparking anger.
Ms Edmunds said: “While I am relieved for this to finally be over, three years after Sarah Everard’s death, and almost three years after I was threatened with criminal charges for exercising my inalienable right to protest her murder, in that time I have also seen the state clamp down yet further on our collective freedom to assemble and demand change.”
She added she was splitting the payout with pro-Palestine protesters.
A spokesperson for the Met Police told Sky News: “The vigil took place in extraordinary circumstances, in the midst of a pandemic where restrictions on gatherings were in force for very valid public health reasons and in the days immediately following the most appalling murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer.
“The officers involved acted in good faith, interpreting complex and changing legislation in very challenging circumstances.
“They acted in a way that was entirely consistent with their colleagues working across London at the time and the operational directions given by the relevant command teams.
“Their actions were found by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to have been appropriate and no misconduct was identified by our Professional Standards teams.
“The settlement that has been reached does not alter that position and the Met has no intention to revisit it.
“A protracted legal dispute was not in the interests of any party, and an agreed settlement reached.”
