TWO women who were brutally arrested at a vigil for Sarah Everard secured payouts and received an official apology from the Metropolitan Police today.

ePatsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid were both detained at the event on Clapham Common in March 2021, held amid ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

Hundreds of people, including the Princess of Wales, attended the event following outrage of Ms Everard’s murder by a serving police officer.

The event was originally planned by campaign group Reclaim These Streets (RTS), which cancelled the protest after Met officers threatened organisers with £10,000 fines under lockdown rules in place at the time.

But members of the public attended anyway, with no police intervention for around six hours.

Some women were then bundled to the ground and arrested.

A legal battle had been ongoing, with the RTS successfully arguing that their right to protest had been breached by the Met.

Ms Stevenson accused the Met of “hiding behind” Covid-19 as an excuse for its actions.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: “I wonder if there will be an investigation into the transcript of what those officers said, because I’ve seen what they said and I didn’t see anything to do with Covid.

“I saw something that said along the lines of ‘Let’s nick these four,’ ‘They’re spouting stuff about the Met Police,’ ‘lefty-something’ – there wasn’t a bit on there that said ‘We need to restrict this because of Covid regulations.’

“I think that the whole thing was ridiculous — I think they are hiding behind the guise of Covid-19, when they actually just acted inappropriately. ”

Asked if she felt the Met was learning from the incident, she added: “I think it will always be lip service.

“I think [Met Police Commissioner] Mark Rowley is better at lip service than [former commissioner] Cressida Dick was, I think he’s doing things in a more tactical way.

“Time and time again we see an incident happen, the police do a lot of PR damage like they did with the vigil, and then they get a new commissioner in [and promise] radical reform. Where is this reform?”

In letters to Ms Stevenson and Ms Al-Obeid, Met Police Commander Karen Findlay wrote: “I wish to emphasise that I fully acknowledge that your motivations in attending the vigil were to express your grief and anger regarding the circumstances of the tragic murder of Sarah Everard…

“… and [I wish] to express the level of concern and dissatisfaction felt by you and many other women who were understandably feeling badly let down by the Met.”

Ms Al-Obeid said that she appreciated that the Met Police acknowledged their motivations for attending, but said that “‘badly let down’ is an understatement.

“I have found this journey incredibly difficult but very important as a survivor of domestic violence and someone who has been failed by the police in that context,” she said.

“I have felt abused, abandoned by the police prior to, during and post the vigil — I do not feel protected or safe with any police force.”

The pair’s lawyer Rachel Harger said that protests are as vital as they have ever been and that without them “injustices will be unchallenged and people will lose confidence in democratic processes by which things can change.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the settlement and said: “I will continue to work closely with the Commissioner to reform the Met so that those groups who have been let down by the service see the fundamental change and improvement they deserve as we continue to build a safer London for everyone.”

A Met spokesperson said that an agreed settlement was the most appropriate action.