Sarah Everard vigil: Cressida Dick says she will not resign amid growing anger over police actions

The woman whose arrest sparked outrage at policing of the Sarah Everard vigil has said she will no longer be going to a demonstration at Parliament Square on Monday.

Patsy Stevenson was pictured being restrained on the ground with her hands cuffed behind her back at the event at Clapham Common last night.

It prompted Home Office minister Victoria Atkins to describe the police response as “very upsetting”. She added: “That photo is something the police have to explain.”

Ms Stevenson had initially called for people to meet at Parliament Square at 5pm on Monday to “redirect focus away from the police and towards what actually happened.”

Another group of protesters gathered on Whitehall outside Downing Street to chant slogans including: “No justice. No peace. F**k the police”.

They then began moving towards Parliament Square.

A police officer reportedly “dismissed” a woman’s allegation that she was flashed by a man near Clapham Common on her way back from the Sarah Everard vigil.

The male officer is said to have told the 27-year-old: “No, we’ve had enough tonight with the rioters”.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that an appointment had been made with the woman to progress her report of indecent exposure.

The force also said that they were "looking at" the claim that she tried to report this incident to officers in the area at the time.

Police stood guard at the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square as protesters chanted “protect women not statues”.

The demonstrators also held up lights and shouted “How many more?” during the gathering in Westminster.

Reclaim These Streets have hit back at Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick, accusing the force of "misrepresenting" the legal situation on protests during the Covid pandemic.

The group, which took legal action at the High Court, in a bid to hold a vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham last night, said in a statement: “We find it particularly extraordinary that you said you would have attended the vigil yourself had it been lawful. The only reason parts of what ultimately took place, without our involvement, may have been not lawful (though whether it was or not is unclear) is your metropolitan Police Force failing to work with the women leading Reclaim These Streets to develop a lawful, proportionate and safe event.

“The onus is, and always has been, on you to have enabled this to happen - and by not doing so you have not only put people at a serious health risk through a lack of Covid-safe marshalling and at risk of being manhandled fined and arrested by your officers but also at risk of their human rights being infringed upon.

"We recognise that the pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for the police, and that the legislation and Covid regulations you have been given to work with by this government provide little clarity on a number of important areas.

"However we don't believe it is fair to women or anyone in this country for your statements to continue to -as we see it - misrepresent the judgement of the High Court and we anticipate that further legal action from ourselves may be required."

Here’s some more photographs from the protest in Parliament Square tonight.

Metropolitan Police officers have begun urging those still protesting in Westminster to head home.

The force’s events team posted on Twitter: “The vast majority of people have gone home following demonstrations in #Westminster today.

“A group are still outside New Scotland Yard. Despite repeated requests by officers, they are still gathering, in breach of the regulations. We are urging people to go home.”

One Twitter user, who is among those still in central London, posted a picture of the largely depleted crowd. It shows roughly 20 people, some still holding up signs.

Livestream footage of the ongoing Westminster protest shows dozens of people still going outside New Scotland Yard.

Chants of “no justice, no peace, f*** the police” and “I am Sarah” could be heard as officers remained in position outside the station.

One woman could be seen shouting at officers, telling them to “look me in the eye” and asking why they refused to. “Because you know what you’ve done,” she said.

At one point, the remaining protestors congregated around a group of women who had a loudhailer and were sharing their stories of abuse at the hands of men and people in positions of power.

Originally from Oxford, Cressida Dick was educated at the city’s university, graduating from Balliol College.

She joined the Met in 1983, where she served as a constable, sergeant and inspector in central south-west and south-east London.

In 1995 she transferred to Thames Valley Police as superintendent operations at Oxford, and subsequently spent three years as area commander.

She took a career break to study for a Master’s degree in criminology at Cambridge University, before returning to the Met in June 2001.

Dame Cressida, who was the UK police lead for hostage negotiation, was appointed director of the force’s diversity directorate and head of the racial and violent crime taskforce before moving to the specialist crime directorate in 2003.

During her second stint at the Met she took on command roles in the police response to the 9/11 attacks and the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

She was thrust into the public eye in 2005 after she was in charge of the operation that led to the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber.

A jury later cleared Dame Cressida of any blame in his death.

In February 2007 she was promoted to deputy assistant commissioner and was made the Met’s first female assistant commissioner in 2009.

She was the national lead for counter-terrorism for three years, and also led the security operations for the Queen’s diamond jubilee and 2012 Olympics.

Dame Cressida then left Scotland Yard in January 2015 to become a director-general at the Foreign Office before returning as commissioner in 2017.

She was made a dame in Theresa May’s resignation honours in 2019.

Press Association

The Metropolitan Police have released a video extract of the statement Cressida Dick gave earlier this evening defending her officers’ handling of the vigil last night.

She said: “I fully understand the strength of feeling I think as a woman hearing from people about their experiences in the past and what they feel about what happened to Sarah and what has been going on, I understand why so many people wanted to come and pay their respects and make a statement about this.

“Indeed, if it had been lawful, I’d have been there, I’d have been at a vigil. And six hours of yesterday was really calm and peaceful, very few police officers around, respectful, people laying flowers, not gathering, and a vigil that did not breach the regulations.

“Unfortunately, later on, we had a really big crowd that gathered, lots of speeches and quite rightly, as far as I can see, my team felt this is now an unlawful gathering which poses a considerable risk to people’s health according to the regulations.”