THE Metropolitan Police breached the rights of Clapham Common vigil organisers last year, two High Court judges ruled today in a decision hailed as a “victory for women.” 

Campaign group Reclaim These Streets was forced to cancel the planned event in south London in March 2021 after the Met told them they would face a £10,000 fine. 

Hundreds of mourners showed up in defiance of the police threats to pay their respects to Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a serving police officer. 

Police infamously intervened to break up the vigil, leading to scenes of female mourners being manhandled by officers, triggering widespread public outrage. 

Four of the organisers brought a legal challenge against the force over its handling of the event, arguing that the police’s decision to refuse them permission to hold the vigil amounted to a breach of their human rights. 

The High Court ruled in favour of Reclaim These Streets on Friday, finding that the Met’s statements that the event would be unlawful under Covid-19 regulations at the time were “incorrect” and “misleading.”

“Those statements interfered with the claimants’ rights because each had a ‘chilling effect’ and made at least some causal contribution to the decision to cancel the vigil,” Lord Justice Warby said in a summary of the ruling. 

“None of the (force’s) decisions was in accordance with the law; the evidence showed that the (force) failed to perform its legal duty to consider whether the claimants might have a reasonable excuse for holding the gathering, or to conduct the fact-specific proportionality assessment required in order to perform that duty.”

Reclaim these Streets co-founder Anna Birley said the judgement represented an “absolute vindication” and a “victory for women.” 

She added that scenes of women being manhandled on the night of the vigil were a “direct result” of the police’s decision-making. The planned vigil would have been socially distanced and attended by stewards. 

It comes as women gear up to protest outside Scotland Yard today to mark the vigil’s one-year anniversary. The action, organised by feminist campaign group Sisters Uncut, calls for the public to “withdraw consent from policing,” to protest against “embedded misogyny in the institution.”

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said: “The Met worked very hard in challenging circumstances to interpret and apply the regulations lawfully and proportionately, despite numerous changes during the pandemic.”

She said the force will now consider whether to appeal against the decision, saying it could have wider implications for other protests.