Scotland Yard Presses On With Charges for Sarah Everard Vigil During London Lockdown

After bending over backward to help Prime Minister Boris Johnson ride out his “Partygate” scandal, Scotland Yard has decided to press ahead with charges against four people who attended a vigil for a young woman who was abducted, raped, and murdered by a British police officer. Four people who attended the vigil, which was violently broken up by police, for the murdered Sarah Everard on Clapham Common in March 2021 will face charges of illegally attending a public gathering of more than two people in a public place while London was under strict COVID lockdown. The High Court ruled this year that Metropolitan Police breached the rights of the vigil organizers by threatening them with £10,000 fines if the vigil went ahead—a ruling the Met has twice tried to appeal. The decision to press on with the charges came as the group Led by Donkeys—a kind of U.K. version of the Lincoln Project—released a devastating video documenting seven occasions on which Scotland Yard chiefs intervened to help Johnson survive allegations that he and his staff at 10 Downing Street ignored the COVID rules they themselves had dreamed up. Johnson is known to have attended several boozy parties, but escaped with a £50 penalty notice.