I’ll never forgive what the police did to me at Sarah Everard’s vigil…

It’s taken three years to get damages, writes Jeni Taygeta Pinto Edmunds. Police swarmed on Clapham Common and violently arrested a number of women mourners – I’ll never forget that moment

‘Why did I go to the vigil even though the police ordered it to be cancelled? The answer is simple: it felt vital to mourn our dead sisters’ (PA)

“Who killed Sarah Everard? POLICE KILLED SARAH EVERARD!” – this was the call and response that rang clear in the twilight when police swarmed on Clapham Common and violently arrested a number of women mourners at a vigil, including myself, to international public outcry in March 2021.

Three years later, the chant still rings in my ears.

Why did I go to the vigil even though the police ordered it to be cancelled? The answer is simple: it felt vital to mourn our dead sisters. Sarah wasn’t the first. She won’t be the last. And even though I was arrested – and have only this week received the damages I was owed – I don’t regret it. The scene was momentous and moving. The air was thick, the rage was palpable.