An English woman’s high profile arrest at vigil held for the murdered Sarah Everard has indicated that she has been besieged by unwanted advances from police officers since her detention via dating app Tinder.
28-year-old Patsy Stevenson says around ”50” police officers have contacted her, leaving her “terrified“, after she was handcuffed at the vigil on 13 March.
She said they knew she was “fearful of police” and had done it “for a reason“.
Hundreds attended the vigil in south London following the death of Ms Everard, who was murdered by Police officer Wayne Couzens after he abducted her while she was walking home.
She was handcuffed and held down by two officers, and was also issued with a £200 fine. She has since launched legal action against the Met Police over the arrest.
She says since her arrest, 50 police officers and security guards approached her via tinder.
“They were all in uniform on their profiles or it said ‘I’m a police officer‘,” she said.
“It is almost like an intimidation thing, saying ‘look we can see you’, and that, to me, is terrifying.
“They know what I went through and they know that I’m fearful of police and they’ve done that for a reason.”
Ms Stevenson said she had also become the focus of internet conspiracies since her arrest and “can’t count the amount of death threats I’ve had“.
She added that many of the threats had been about kidnapping her.
“Now there’s always that fear when I’m out and I see someone staring at me,” she said.
“I just want to be able to live the way you live without fear.”
Ms Stevenson said she had reported the threats, which are being investigated, though had not reported the dating app contacts.
She said the police needed to start “taking accountability for officers actions” and ”If they started looking into it properly and… listening to people’s concerns and then enacting change, we would be able to trust them more.”
