The parents of two young children found themselves detained in a police cell for eleven hours after expressing their concerns on WhatsApp regarding the teacher recruitment process at their daughter’s primary school.
Maxie Allen, a producer at Times Radio, and his partner Rosalind Levine were taken into custody under suspicion of harassment and malicious communications following a seemingly minor disagreement.
CCTV shows six uniformed police officers descending on their suburban home before they were led away in front of their crying daughter.
After a five-week investigation, Hertfordshire Constabulary finally concluded there was no case to answer.
Mr. Allen, aged 50, criticized the police’s actions as ‘dystopian’ and characterized it as a severe overreaction. He also accused Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, of attempting to stifle dissenting voices from concerned parents.
‘I was just in complete disbelief,’ he said. ‘It was just unfathomable to me that things had escalated to this degree.
‘It was absolutely nightmarish. I couldn’t believe this was happening, that a public authority could use the police to close down a legitimate inquiry.
‘We’d never used abusive or threatening language, even in private, and always followed due process. Yet we have never even been told what these communications were that were supposedly criminal, which is completely Kafkaesque.’
As well as harassment and malicious communications, Mr Allen and Ms Levine, 46, were also accused of and causing a nuisance on school property.
But the couple said they had not been on the school’s premises since July, and these allegations were never explained to them.
They say police also failed to explain how their actions met the threshold for the other offences.
The trouble started brewing in May 2024, six months after the school’s headteacher announced his retirement, when Mr Allen questioned why an open recruitment process had not yet begun.
Mr Allen, a former governor himself, hoped there would be a meeting to explain the process — but his questions went unanswered.
Shorty afterwards Jackie Spriggs, the chairman of governors, told parents that ‘inflammatory and defamatory’ comments had been seen on social media and warned that the school would take action against anyone who caused ‘disharmony’.
Mr Allen and Ms Levine were later banned from the school’s premises for ‘casting aspersions’ on Mrs Spriggs.
They say they were blocked from attending a parents’ evening for their daughter Sascha, nine, and her Christmas performance. They began emailing the school to address Sascha’s needs as she suffers from epilepsy, is neurodivergent and registered disabled.
On January 29, Ms Levine was clearing out toys for charity and looking after her three-year-old daughter, Francesa, when there was a knock at the front door of their home in Borehamwood.
She said: ‘I saw six police officers standing there. There were two cars and a police van. My first thought was that Sascha was dead. I could not think of any other reason why six police officers would be at my door. Francesca was cowering in the corner, she was terrified.’
Mr Allen said: ‘I believe the school tried to use the police to close down legitimate inquiries, and for some reason the constabulary played along.’
Cowley Hill Primary said it sought advice from police after a ‘high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts’ that had become ‘upsetting for staff, parents and governors’.
A spokesman added: ‘We’re always happy for parents to raise concerns, but we do ask that they do this in a suitable way, and in line with the school’s published complaints procedure.’
Hertfordshire County Council said Louise Thomas was appointed interim head of Cowley Hill School for one term before a proper recruitment process was carried out, adding it was ‘fair, transparent and timely’.
Hertfordshire Police said the number of officers was needed to secure electronic devices and care for children at the address.
A spokesman said: ‘The arrests were necessary to fully investigate the allegations as is routine in these types of matters. Following further investigations, officers deemed that no further action should be taken due to insufficient evidence.’
