A teacher arrested for confiscating her own children’s iPads has been involved in acrimonious disputes with two different men, MailOnline can reveal.
Mum-of-two Vanessa Brown, 50, expressed that she experienced extreme distress and trauma when she was arrested and brought to a police station for theft.
As a history teacher, she took her daughters’ devices to prevent distractions during their studies, but this led to her being searched, photographed, and fingerprinted.
The incident involving Ms. Brown caused a stir nationwide, but it has come to light that she has been embroiled in contentious disputes with two men following the breakdown of her relationships with them.
It is understood one of these men is the father of the children in question with one source even claiming it was him who reported her.
A previous partner took her to court following a bitter falling out in which 22 messages were posted on social media about him.
He also claims that his son lost his teaching job because of the claims that Vanessa had made.
When approached for comment the man refused to discuss the case he took out against her.
Neighbours at an old address in Cobham, Surrey, where Ms Browm moved out last week told MailOnline she was ‘a handful’ and they ‘avoided her’.
One said:’ She was here around two years, and the police were here quite a bit for one thing or another.
‘I think there were problems with ex-s and stuff on social media, I tried to avoid her as I didn’t want to get involved.’
Another neighbour said: ’I read about the iPads in the news and I’m pretty sure it would have been her ex-husband who shopped her, they just didn’t get on.’
After receiving the complaint Surrey Police, who also visited the children’s school, pulling one of Ms Brown’s daughters out of class, have since acknowledged their error.
Ms Brown was apprehended at her mother’s home in Cobham, Surrey, to which she was eventually returned only after a 12-hour ordeal that, due to her bail conditions, threatened to prevent her from seeing her children on Mother’s Day.
The incident, which follows the arrest of a couple in Hertfordshire over complaints they made about their daughter’s primary school, is likely to raise further questions about police priorities.
‘I find it quite traumatic even talking about this now,’ Ms Brown told LBC.
‘They were able to send a police car with police officers to my children’s school, they were able to send another police car or two to arrest me.
‘I know people are making reports of thefts, of assaults and very violent crimes in and around our neighbourhood, and they’re not getting a response for days.
‘I cannot get to the bottom of why it was done in such a quick turnaround, maybe less than an hour – all these police cars and police officers going to an address over a completely false report of a theft.’
She said the heavy-handed approach of police, who took more than 24 hours from the moment she was arrested to inform her that no further action would be taken, had left her in a ‘catatonic state’.
‘At no point did they think to themselves, “Oh, this is a little bit of an overreaction,”‘ said Ms Brown. ‘It was thoroughly unprofessional. They were speaking to my mother, who is in her 80s, like she was a criminal.’
The Tory MP Anthony Stansfeld, the former police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley, called on police to apologise for their inexpert handling of the incident.
‘It seems to me incompetence and a certain amount of overzealousness at a junior level, which the local inspector should have put a rapid stop to,’ he said.
‘It was quite unnecessary to put a reputable 50-year-old history teacher into a cell for seven hours.
‘It’s hardly likely that she would have absconded abroad and I would hope that the chief constable goes and apologises personally to the poor lady.’
A Surrey Police spokesman said a man in his 40s had alerted them to the possible theft of the iPads, prompting a search for the devices.
‘A tracking device on the iPads showed that they were at the address and a 50-year-old woman from Cobham was arrested on suspicion of theft,’ said the spokesperson.
‘A search was then carried out using post-arrest powers and the iPads were located.
‘The woman was subsequently released on conditional bail while further enquiries were carried out.
‘The police bail conditions included not speaking to her daughters, who were connected to the investigation, while officers carried out their enquiries.
‘Following these enquiries, officers discovered that the iPads belonged to the woman’s children and that she was entitled to confiscate items from her own children.’
