London’s Metropolitan Police has apologized and paid “substantial damages” to two women arrested during a March 2021 vigil for Sarah Everard, a young marketing executive who was abducted and murdered by an off-duty cop as she walked home in South London. Her death, shortly after London went into lockdown, shocked the country and led to protests after the arrest of a serving officer, Wayne Couzens, who later pleaded guilty to her rape and murder. Several hundred women held a night-time vigil at Clapham Common, close to where Everard was last seen, but it was brutally broken up by police for contravening lockdown rules—even though then-Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton had passed by the vigil site to show her support earlier that day. The Met was sued by two women, Dania Al-Obeid and Patsy Stevenson, who were held down by officers before being taken away in handcuffs. A Met spokesperson said a settlement had been reached to avoid a “protracted legal dispute” that would add to the women’s distress.
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