{"id":267234,"date":"2025-11-17T05:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T05:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/267234\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T05:12:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T05:12:19","slug":"parents-arrested-for-whatsapps-say-police-have-paid-20k-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/267234\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents arrested for WhatsApps say police have paid \u00a320k damages"},"content":{"rendered":"

The couple said six police officers turned up at the home in January<\/p>\n

A couple who were arrested after making complaints about their daughter’s primary school, which included comments made on WhatsApp, say police have paid them \u00a320,000 in damages.<\/p>\n

Rosalind Levine and Maxie Allen told the Times in March<\/a> they were held for 11 hours on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property.<\/p>\n

Hertfordshire Police previously said the arrests “were necessary to fully investigate the allegations”.<\/p>\n

Ms Levine, from Borehamwood, told the BBC police had accepted liability for unlawful arrest and paid damages of \u00a320,000, plus costs. BBC News has asked Hertfordshire Police to comment.<\/p>\n

Ms Levine added she was “very pleased” with the outcome.<\/p>\n

“We can now begin to put this whole episode behind us,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"SuppliedSupplied<\/p>\n

The couple were arrested in January but, two months later, the force said no further action would be taken<\/p>\n

According to the Times, the couple said they were banned from entering Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood after questioning the recruitment process for a head teacher and criticising the leadership in a parents’ WhatsApp group.<\/p>\n

The parents said they emailed 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.<\/p>\n

The school said it sought advice from police after a “high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts” that it said was upsetting for staff, parents and governors.<\/p>\n

An officer issued a warning to the family in December, telling them to take their daughter out of school, which they did the next month.<\/p>\n

But a week after that, on 29 January, Mr Allen said six police officers turned up at his home.<\/p>\n

Mr Allen, who is a Times Radio producer, denied using abusive or threatening language, “even in private”.<\/p>\n

The force revealed it was reviewing the investigation, and Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire Jonathan Ash-Edwards said: “There has clearly been a fundamental breakdown in relationships between a school and parents that shouldn’t have become a police matter.”<\/p>\n

\"GoogleGoogle<\/p>\n

Cowley Hill Primary School contacted police after claiming the parents’ private and public communications had caused upset<\/p>\n

Ms Levine said earlier that she still had concerns about “how and why our arrests were signed off by an inspector”.<\/p>\n

“That decision severely impacted both our children. Our three-year-old had to witness her parents being taken away by a swarm of police officers, and my 80-year-old mother became physically ill over it later that day,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I hope that our case will highlight failings within the constabulary and the chief constable will ensure that this never happens again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The couple said six police officers turned up at the home in January A couple who were arrested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-267234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}