WhatsApp row messages revealed that led to police raid on school parents home

2 April 2025, 09:39

The couple made sarcastic comments about their child's new headteacher - leading to three police cars, a van and six uniformed officers to their door.

Six police officers were sent to the family’s house to arrest the couple on suspicion of malicious communications and harassment after Cowley Hill Primary School, where their daughter attended, complained of a high volume of emails and disparaging comments on WhatsApp.

"The problem is they think they have a right to control everyone. Ultimately they can't and that annoys them. People can discuss anything they like," Levine wrote.

If they feel one of them has been defeated they are more than welcome to find the money to take the individual to the High Court"

She wrote: "Can you imagine what the 'action' is? Hello, 999, one of the school mums said something mean about me in a school mum WhatsApp group. Please can you arrest them?"

Allen replied on WhatsApp: "No public body has the power to control what people say about it."

One parent said: "This should be a safe group where parents feel free to speak and share opinions about how they feel about the school and its actions and activities, nothing more or less, end of story."

Levine quipped: "The funny thing is, they sent out that letter requesting parents don't talk about this in WhatsApp and Facebook groups and they achieved the complete opposite."

Another parent replied: "Everyone's talking about it in the playground as well. It's ridiculous."

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Their messages were critical of the hunt for the new headteacher led by chairman of governors, Jackie Spriggs.

In May 2024, after the headteacher announced their retirement, Allen questioned why the deputy head Louise Thomas was appointed 'acting head' and no recruitment process had begun.

Spriggs then told parents that "inflammatory and defamatory" comments had been seen on social media and the school would take action against anyone causing "disharmony".

Allen and Levine were also banned from the school premises for "casting aspersions" on Spriggs.

The pair said they were banned from attending parents evening and the school's Christmas performance for their child Sascha.

They also said the ban prevented them from giving the school important medical information about their daughter, who is disabled, neurodivergent and suffers from epilepsy.

An officer issued a warning to the family in December, and told them to take Sascha out of school, which they did the next month, a week before they were arrested on 29 January.

A mum of two, and member of the WhatsApp group, told the MailOnline: "I was utterly shocked when I heard that Maxie and Ros had been arrested – it was a hysterical reaction to the situation and I simply couldn't believe it.

"I've known Ros for six years and she's the nicest person I know. They are both lovely, reasonable people, and for anyone thinking there must be more to this – there really isn't.

"There was nothing in those WhatsApp messages to take offence at – last time I checked, people are allowed to voice their concerns and criticisms without being arrested in this country."

After a five-week investigation, Hertfordshire Constabulary concluded there was no case to answer.

Hertfordshire’s chief constable Andy Prophet  has defended the force’s actions saying that the couple had been sent warnings and there was ‘lawful reason to arrest’.

The parents said they were locked inside a cell for eleven hours, after complaining about the recruitment process at their daughter’s school on a WhatsApp group.

They told the Times that police took their fingerprints and searched them, then left them in the cell.

Levine said: "We've still not been told exactly what sparked the police investigation, which is completely unfair.

"Even though the case has been dropped, there's still damage to our reputation. It was very embarrassing being frog-marched into a police van in front of our neighbours.

"One of them was asking if it was a drugs raid. The neighbour who picked up Sascha from school was very upset about the whole thing.

"Then we had to go back to the police station to retrieve all the items they had taken from our house during the search. The whole thing has left a degree of trauma for us and our children."

Mr Allen, a Times Radio producer, said he was attending a Zoom meeting when six police officers turned up at his home.

He told The Times: "I was just in complete disbelief.

"It was just unfathomable to me that things had escalated to this degree."

The couple asked to be told what they had done that met the threshold for the alleged offences, but both the police and school refused to give specifics, the paper said.

They say they could find about 45 email threads, some involving multiple emails, during their six-month ban.

Mr Allen said: "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."

He added: "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 School said in a statement: "We sought advice from the police following a high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts from two parents, as this was becoming upsetting for staff, parents and governors. 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 school's published complaints procedure."

Hertfordshire police said the number of officers sent to Allen and Levine's home was needed to secure electronic devices and care for children at the address.

"Following reports of harassment and malicious communications, which are criminal offences, a man and a woman from Borehamwood, both aged in their forties, were arrested on Wednesday 29 January."

"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."