Clapham Common timeline: the sequence of events that led to chaos

Footage of women being restrained and arrested by police at the vigil for Sarah Everard on Clapham Common on Saturday caused widespread outrage on social media.

But what went the wrong? The disastrous chain of events was set in motion by a series of decisions made days before the cancelled vigil descended into chaos.

On Tuesday 9 March, a serving Met Police officer was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Everard, and the following day a group called Reclaim These Streets tweeted it was organising a socially distanced vigil on Clapham Common at 6pm on Saturday 13 March “for all women threatened on our streets”.

The group said that both Lambeth Council and the Met Police had initially given them a positive response to their plans to hold a vigil, but by Thursday 11 March the Met had reversed its position. In a statement, Reclaim These Streets said that police had told them the event would be unlawful and that organisers could face £10,000 fines under coronavirus laws, and prosecution under the Serious Crimes Act.

The group said they had taken advice from a group of human rights lawyers, and by Friday 12 March there was a High Court challenge against a ban on the vigil. However, the court refused to intervene in the legal challenge over the right to protest during the pandemic, saying that this was “not a matter on which the court should comment”.

Reclaim These Streets said they were “in discussions with the Met to confirm how the event can proceed in a way that is proportionate and safe”. But by Saturday 13 March the talks had collapsed. The group put out a statement saying that “in light of the lack of constructive engagement from the Metropolitan Police, we do not feel that we can in good faith allow tonight’s event to go ahead”.

As The Times’ Janice Turner, who was there, points out: “This was the Met’s first error. Banning the vigil via the courts and threatening organisers with fines turned it from an official, stewarded event into an ad hoc happening”.

Inevitably, people turned up in their hundreds to Clapham Common on Saturday to remember Everard, despite the ban on the vigil. By all accounts, the atmosphere during the day was one of grief and respect; mourners including the Duchess of Cambridge turned upto lay flowers on the bandstand and pay tribute to Everard.

Journalist Michele Theil recounted the events for MyLondon: “When I arrived at 5.45pm, the atmosphere was calm. I could see a throng of people gathered around the bandstand but strangers stood apart while those that came together were hugging and holding hands in solidarity… everyone wore a mask, myself included, and there was no outright expression of anger or violence, just sadness”.

But the atmosphere started to change after the minute’s silence at 6pm. Kate Maltby tweeted: “Lots of women early on did just as the Duchess of C did – come look at the flowers for a bit, make their point, move on. Then it got darker, then Sisters Uncut started leading speeches from the bandstand, then the police moved in.”

After the event, Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said: “At this point, officers on the ground were faced with a very difficult decision. Hundreds of people were packed tightly together, posing a very real risk of easily transmitting Covid-19” – which is when the police decided to break up that part of the gathering and remove people whom they believed were contributing to the crowding.

As Janice Turner recounts in The Times: “Then the Met did the dumbest thing of all. Police started to push through and form a circle around the bandstand, between women and the floral tributes. I was right at the front and could hear tea-lights crunch under size-11 boots. “They’re treading on her flowers,” women cried. A solemn gathering turned instantly into a furious crowd”.

She said many of the police looked embarrassed and tried to be helpful by laying bouquets passed to them by women in the crowds, but that ultimately, they “withdrew and resumed pulling people off the bandstand”.

It has been suggested that anti-lockdown demonstrators, primarily men, turned up to join the crowd. Footage also later emerged of female demonstrators near the front shouting “All Cops are Bastards, and no justice, no peace,” a chant that is a favourite of far left campaigners. But other women who were there deny that this is what caused the escalation, blaming heavy handed policing.

At 6:40, The Times’ Emma Yeomans tweeted that the crowd was “chanting shame on you as police block access to bandstand”. Four minutes later she posted: “Scuffles on the bandstand now. At least 3 people knocked to ground in the crowd. Police still marching through to bandstand”. A few minutes later, she tweeted: “Got knocked down by police moving through. Am okay. Very tense here. Mostly men now at the front pushing against police line”.

At 6:46 Lambeth Police tweeted: “A large static gathering is now building at the bandstand on #ClaphamCommon. Tonight’s #ReclaimTheseStreets vigil has been cancelled and we’d urge people to pay their respects, but not gather in groups.” After several more updates urging people to go home, at 7:21pm police tweeted: “The gathering at #ClaphamCommon is unsafe. Hundreds of people are tightly packed together in breach of the regulations and risking public health. We are urging people to go home and we thank those who have been engaging with officers and who are leaving”.

Patsy Stevenson, the red-haired woman caught on camera being handcuffed on the ground at the bandstand, received a £200 fine as police tried to remove her from the area. She told Sky News: “Because of the amount of police we were sort of forced towards a barrier and at one point, you know, I saw the woman next to me, there was a [police officer, who] put an arm around her throat and was trying to pull her backwards, so we were very scared about what was going to happen”.

She said there was someone telling her not to give her name to the police so she just stood there without saying anything. She said a police officer was pulling her to try to get her name and then “all of a sudden I was tackled to the ground”.

Journalist Emily Hill, who documented the events on Instagram, said that police kept moving in to take women away and that it began to feel unsafe near the bandstand. Later in the evening, she posted that she had started to feel “afraid”, followed by a later post that said: “I feared arrest by the Met if we stayed so we left off reporting here”.

At around 8:30pm, the scenes began to calm down. Writing for MyLondon, Michele Theil said: “After many of the officers had left to take those arrested into custody, I returned to the bandstand to find the peaceful vigil that I had seen before”.

“There were a few police officers scattered around but all they did was stand there, with the rest retreating elsewhere. It was once again calm, with many staying to do exactly what they had planned to: attend a vigil and pay tribute to Sarah Everard”.

The decisions surrounding this chain of events will be scrutinised in greater detail in the coming weeks at independent investigations called by both Patel and London Mayor, Sadiq Khan. Both politicians have continued to support Met Police chief Cressida Dick after outrage at the policing of the event – but all three face questions over why nobody foresaw the spiralling events that ended in women being restrained on the floor at an event that was meant to be a peaceful vigil.