“After two and a half years, and after being convicted by them behind closed doors…we have won our case” Dania tells me grinning.
She’s been waiting years for this moment: “I feel empowered, I feel validated, I feel stronger.”
There’s not many people who don’t know Sarah Everard’s name. She was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a then-serving police officer, Wayne Couzens. At the height of the pandemic women began outpouring accounts of their own unsafety and sadness for Sarah and her family on social media.
It didn’t take long for the words online to trickle into the real world and vigil’s were organised up and down the country.
Still under COVID-19 restrictions, the London police force decided to ban the vigil organised in Clapham Common, not far from where Sarah disappeared just days before.
This didn’t go down well, women across the capital felt like they had something to say, respects to pay. Dania was one of the hundreds of people who came to pay their respects.
“It felt like it was us against the Met police” she said. “They felt like huge men grabbing my arm and I was just kinda like please can you not hold my arm? This was too much, we were surrounded by police officers as if we had done something really criminal.”
She was eventually arrested for breaking Covid restrictions and has been locked in a legal dispute with the force ever since.
But now she’s ‘won’ in some respects. The police have offered her and another woman, Patsy Stevenson who was also arrested, an ‘apology’ and money.
“The money is not an apology to me, we actually had the option to receive money or the apology, a full apology, with accountability. We chose the latter.”
Dania laughs and explains how money is always helpful: “I get to pay back some of the therapy that I had to invest in” but what she really wanted was full accountability which she says would ensure “this never happens again”.
The Met police recognise the reasoning people went to the Vigil but Dania says they still think they acted appropriately. “If anyones seen the footage or attended, it’s baffling that they can even issue that statement. So the money is not an apology to us”.
This all comes at a very important moment for the Met. They’re battling with their reputation and regaining the trust of women and girls.
After asking her whether women should trust the Met, Dania becomes emotional as she explains it’s not just women who don’t trust the force.
“It breaks my heart to say this, because I know we go to the police for protection. And for the most part, we don't get that. And right now we need to really be aware of that fact, so when victims experience this, they know they’re not alone."
You can watch our full documentary on the Met Police: Rotten to the core? On our YouTube now.