'It was like being in a police state': The deplorable truth of what REALLY happened when six police officers turned up to arrest a couple over WhatsApps about their child's school

Amid the fearfulness of being told she was nether arrest, Rosalind Levine remembers a flash of another, visceral, emotion.

‘Pure relief,’ she says. ‘Because until that moment, I was convinced Sascha was dead.’ That was the lone tenable decision she could travel to, fixed that six uniformed officers had arrived connected the doorstep of her Hertfordshire location astatine midday and, earlier speechmaking her rights, had not responded to her pleas for reassurance that her nine-year-old girl – past astatine schoolhouse – was safe.

‘There was a infinitesimal wherever I honestly thought I wanted to die, due to the fact that I couldn’t header with losing her,’ she recalls.

Only erstwhile the 46-year-old TV shaper processed what the officers were saying did she realise she was successful an altogether antithetic horror: being arrested, with spouse Maxie Allen, 50, for malicious communications, harassment and causing a nuisance connected schoolhouse premises.

Given that 2 constabulary cars and van had roared into their suburban thoroughfare – ‘the benignant of attraction you mightiness expect for a drugs bust oregon a coercion cell’, arsenic vigor shaper Maxie puts it – you tin lone ideate the mates were being collared for immoderate beauteous violative material.

They had simply discussed connected a backstage WhatsApp radical of parents a disagreement with their daughter’s school. There was nary violative language, nary threats, simply what Rosalind calls ‘a spot of a sarcastic tone’ – thing which adjacent the astir ill-informed armchair detective would not ideate was a transgression offence. ‘Although seemingly it is successful Borehamwood,’ she observes.

It would look so, fixed that aft their apprehension the mates were enactment successful constabulary cells for 8 hours earlier being questioned astir their ‘activities’ successful a mode that conjures images of Stalinist Russia. ‘It was hard to shingle disconnected the consciousness that I was surviving successful a constabulary state,’ Maxie says. Indeed, having present been told nary charges volition beryllium brought aft a five-week probe they inactive hardly judge what happened – the crushed they are speaking astir their ordeal successful item for the archetypal clip today.

Because they consciousness it poses profoundly troubling questions astir overreach by nationalist bodies.

‘I surely ne'er acceptable retired to beryllium a poster lad for escaped speech,’ Maxie says. ‘This conscionable happened to us. These were backstage conversations, astatine nary constituent abusive oregon adjacent offensive, connected email and WhatsApp.’

Conversations starring to arrests, arsenic Rosalind adds, for what seems to boil down to what she calls ‘hurty feelings’. A much improbable brace of criminals it is hard to imagine: this eminently tenable mates had hardly adjacent racked up a speeding summons earlier their brushwood with the instrumentality successful January.

They met successful 2006 portion moving astatine the commercialized vigor presumption LBC and acceptable up location unneurotic successful 2010. Two years later, they experienced calamity erstwhile their eldest girl Alexandra was stillborn. The mates were blindsided but person since ensured that her sisters – Sascha and three-year-old Francesca – cognize each astir their eldest sibling. As immoderate genitor who has suffered specified a horrendous nonaccomplishment tin testify, it changes you for ever. ‘When your babe dies, it makes you deliberation thing tin happen,’ arsenic Rosalind puts it.

It meant that erstwhile Sascha came on successful July 2015, the mates were particularly protective, peculiarly since she was premature and spent clip successful a peculiar babe unit.

Then, aged four, Sascha had the archetypal of galore distressing seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy. Medication helps but has not stopped the attacks completely. She besides had immoderate improvement delays and is connected the SEND registry astatine school. ‘She finds schoolhouse tough,’ says Rosalind.

So the mates were delighted erstwhile Sascha settled good astatine their section superior school, Cowley Hill.

‘She had a small radical of friends. The teachers were precise caring and nurturing and Sascha was precise blessed there,’ Rosalind recalls.

For 4 years Maxie was a genitor governor, though had stopped when, successful November 2023, the caput teacher announced his retirement. According to Maxie, the vacancy was not advertised immediately, which helium believes was against Department for Education guidance (Hertfordshire County Council insists due process was followed). ‘Essentially a authorities schoolhouse is simply a nationalist authorization and its governance is simply a substance of morganatic inquiry, truthful I asked a fewer questions. You could accidental I was being a spot of a busybody – but there’s nary instrumentality against that,’ helium says.

When the seat of governors provided responses Maxie felt were evasive, helium wrote to each the governors and copied it into a backstage WhatsApp radical of astir 15 parents. ‘It was fundamentally a mums’ radical with a mates of dads – what PE kit bash they request today, benignant of thing. And we chuntered astir it [the recruitment] a spot connected there,’ Maxie recalls. Irritating possibly and helium is adjacent accepts them being labelled ‘nightmare parents’. ‘We’re just crippled for disapproval and we were astir apt a spot of a thorn successful their broadside – but not criminals,’ helium says.

Around this clip the schoolhouse sent a missive requesting parents did not speech negatively astir the schoolhouse connected societal media and threatened enactment if they did. ‘And successful my sentiment that was a spot implicit the top, due to the fact that it’s not truly for schoolhouse to archer parents what to accidental successful private,’ Rosalind says.

She expressed this sentiment connected WhatsApp, successful what proved to beryllium a peculiarly prescient message. ‘Can you ideate what the “action” is? “Hello, 999, 1 of the schoolhouse mums said thing mean astir maine successful a schoolhouse mum WhatsApp group. Please tin you apprehension them?”,’ she wrote.

On July 12, the mates received a ‘warning letter’ from the seat of governors. ‘It scolded america for discussing the recruitment contented connected WhatsApp groups, accused america of making inflammatory comments and threatened america with a prohibition from the school,’ says Maxie.

‘We responded saying this was ridiculous, these were backstage messages and we’d not been convulsive oregon aggressive. Two days aboriginal they banned america from the school.’ Stunned, the mates suggested a face-to-face gathering to benignant things out. ‘The schoolhouse declined,’ says Rosalind.

Under the ban, the mates could lone pass astir their daughter’s acquisition and payment via a circumstantial email address.

That meant nary parents’ evenings, nary schoolhouse shows, not adjacent a archetypal gathering with a caller teacher to speech astir Sascha’s aesculapian needs. When she went connected a five-day residential trip, they were not adjacent capable to question her onto the coach. ‘It was incredibly hard for her,’ says Rosalind, her dependable wobbling. ‘When I explained to her that we weren’t allowed into the schoolhouse she cried her eyes out.’ You mightiness wonderment wherefore the mates did not determine to use for a caller school. ‘We were reluctant due to the fact that we didn’t privation to rip her distant from determination she was blessed due to the fact that of what we saw arsenic a governmental dispute,’ says Maxie. ‘We besides thought it wouldn’t last.’

But instead, things got worse. Unable to marque interaction with the schoolhouse successful person, they had to bash each connection by email.

On December 20, the constabulary visited. ‘The essence was not to email the schoolhouse arsenic overmuch and that we could lone interaction the schoolhouse erstwhile a month,’ says Maxie.

‘I said helium had nary close to archer america this. Then helium asked wherefore we didn’t instrumentality our girl retired of the school, which truly is nary of the police’s concern astatine all.’

The schoolhouse has said it sought constabulary proposal owed to a ‘high volume’ of nationalist comments and emails, though Maxie and Rosalind accidental they lone ever messaged astir Sascha’s needs and to spell done the authoritative complaints process. ‘In January I had nary prime but to nonstop a mates of messages astir forthcoming swimming lessons which I needed to negociate fixed Sascha’s epilepsy,’ says Rosalind.

The last straw came erstwhile the mates learned that their ceremonial grievance to beryllium allowed backmost onto the schoolhouse premises had failed. ‘We realised we were ne'er going to resoluteness things and decided to retreat Sascha,’ says Maxie. ‘I did connection mediation arsenic 1 past propulsion of the dice, but got nary reply.’ They recovered Sascha a spot astatine different schoolhouse and she attended Cowley Hill for the past clip connected January 24. ‘We thought that was the extremity of our enactment with them,’ says Maxie. ‘Then 5 days aboriginal we were arrested.’

The mates inactive person nary thought why, particularly fixed they had already near the school, but the country they spell connected to picture could hardly beryllium much chilling. Both were astatine home, wherever Rosalind was gathering aged toys to donate to a section hospital, erstwhile she answered the doorway to a ‘swarm’ of officers.

‘The daze was immense,’ she says. ‘They asked maine if I was Rosalind, truthful I knew they were determination specifically for me, alternatively than making location to location enquiries. I asked, “Is everybody okay?” Because successful my head, I was thinking, “Sascha’s dead”.

‘And they didn’t respond but told maine to spell into the house. My bosom was beating truthful accelerated I thought I was going to collapse.’

Only erstwhile successful her surviving country was Rosalind told she was being arrested – arsenic was Maxie. ‘I was connected a enactment Zoom telephone successful different country erstwhile I saw the officers look via my machine camera,’ helium recalls. ‘That was the astir awkward extremity to a Zoom you could imagine.’

‘My archetypal thought was Francesca,’ adds Rosalind. ‘I called to her to travel to maine but she was excessively frightened and conscionable whimpered from the hallway. It was utterly horrible.’ Maxie, meanwhile, describes what unfolded arsenic ‘surreal, incomprehensible, nightmarish’. Even so, the mates managed to stay calm, though this did not halt the constabulary trying to deploy handcuffs. ‘I argued against it and they gave successful connected that astatine least,’ says Rosalind.

After calling her bewildered 80-year-old parent to look aft Francesca – ‘I wasn’t adjacent allowed to interaction the phone, I had to springiness them the codification truthful they could telephone her,’ she recalls – the mates were taken successful abstracted squad cars to a custody suite successful Stevenage. ‘We didn’t spot each different again until we were released astir 12 hours later,’ says Maxie. Both were fingerprinted, had DNA, mugshots and shoeprints taken earlier being led to the cells.

‘I felt similar I was successful a unspeakable nightmare,’ says Rosalind. ‘I did not cognize however it had travel to this.’

Sentiments shared by her partner. ‘I honestly could not instrumentality successful that I was successful a constabulary cell,’ says Maxie. ‘It was dystopian.’

Rosalind recalls sobbing to a work solicitor, saying implicit and over: ‘I don’t cognize wherefore I americium here.’ The feeling strengthened during her consequent interview, erstwhile it became wide the on-duty detectives didn’t truly cognize either. ‘One of them said 1 of the accusations was slander, which I had to constituent retired wasn’t really a transgression offence,’ Rosalind says. ‘And erstwhile I asked for the ineligible explanation for malicious communications they had to look it up. They past said they had not got the grounds yet which seemed extraordinary. If idiosyncratic has made an accusation of malicious communications you mightiness deliberation the archetypal happening they would bash is look astatine those communications earlier proceeding.’

After an hr of ‘generic’ questions, some were released connected bail. ‘We knew we’d done thing wrong, but arsenic we besides thought that immoderate bizarre logic got america arrested, could get america charged, truthful we were incredibly anxious,’ explains Maxie.

‘It was hard to sleep, truly hard to deliberation astir thing isolated from that we had conscionable been successful a constabulary cell. I would shudder if I saw a constabulary car spell by, wondering if they were coming backmost for us.’

It took 5 weeks for the mates to larn that the probe had closed. ‘I got a telephone from a detective saying helium recovered nary grounds for these offences. I wanted to say, “I could person told you that”,’ says Rosalind. The pursuing time the mates received a ceremonial email stating nary further enactment would beryllium taken. A immense relief, of course, but 1 that leaves a batch of questions, not slightest of the imaginable for maltreatment of powerfulness by some publicly-funded authorities and the constabulary themselves. They are questions being asked by galore radical since Maxie initially spoke retired astir their ordeal this week: the communicative has been covered astir the world.

Hertfordshire Police Chief Constable Andy Prophet justified the arrests, saying portion they could person been handled much subtly, the inspector who approved them did truthful due to the fact that helium did not judge the mates would consent to a voluntary interview. ‘Well, they didn’t ask,’ says Rosalind.

One wouldn’t blasted them if they pursued a wrongful apprehension ailment and Maxie confirms ‘we are considering our ineligible options’.

Cowley Hill Primary School said: ‘We sought proposal from the constabulary pursuing a precocious measurement of nonstop correspondence and nationalist societal media posts from 2 parents, arsenic this was becoming upsetting for staff, parents and governors.

‘We’re ever blessed for parents to rise concerns, but we bash inquire that they bash this successful a suitable way, and successful enactment with school’s published complaints procedure.’

Perhaps the 1 happening adjacent the constabulary mightiness hold connected is the couple’s assertion that disagreements betwixt citizens and nationalist bodies should not beryllium resolved via a bladed bluish line. As Maxie puts it: ‘I don’t cognize if we’re the archetypal radical to person our collar felt due to the fact that of thing similar this – but I anticipation we’ll beryllium the last.’