A mother-of-two has told LBC of the “unspeakable devastation and trauma” she has experienced after being arrested for “confiscating her child’s iPad”.
History teacher Vanessa Brown, 50, spent seven-and-a-half hours in a custody cell on March 26 this year, following a claim she had stolen two iPads which were traced to her mother’s house in Cobham, Surrey.
Yet it transpired that the two devices belonged to her daughters, and Ms Brown had merely confiscated them to encourage them to focus on their schoolwork, a fact Surrey Police has now acknowledged.
“I find it quite traumatic even talking about this now,” Ms Brown recalled.
“At no point did they [the officers] think to themselves, ‘Oh, this is a little bit of an overreaction for a moment, confiscating temporarily her iPads and popping over to her mum's to have a coffee’. It was just a complete overreaction.
“It was thoroughly unprofessional. They were speaking to my mother, who is in her 80s, like she was a criminal.”
Surrey Police said a search operation for the devices started after a man in his 40s reported a possible theft, having already been called out to a “concern for safety” on March 26.
Ms Brown was taken to Staines station, where she was searched, and had fingerprints and custody shots taken before being placed in a police cell for several hours.
Surrey Police also sent officers to her children’s school, pulling her daughter out of class in the process.
Her ordeal was compounded, however, when she learned of the conditions of her bail, which would have prevented her from seeing her children on Mother’s Day.
It wasn’t until half-past midnight that Ms Brown was returned to her mother’s house – nearly twelve hours after officers first arrived.
'Catatonic state'
She told LBC she suffered a sleepless night and was left in a “catatonic state” by the experience.
Questions are being raised over the length of time it took for officers to determine that no further action needed to be taken against Ms Brown, which took over 24 hours from when she was arrested.
It comes amid increasing concern about how officers are using their time after a couple from Borehamwood were arrested by Hertfordshire Police following their criticism of a local school on a parents’ Whatsapp chat.
It’s a concern that Ms Brown echoed following her arrest.
“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 [my arrest] was done in such a quick turnaround – maybe less than an hour. All these police cars and police officers going into address over a completely false report of a theft.”
Former Police and Crime Commissioner Anthony Stansfield condemned Surrey Police for their handling of Ms Brown’s case and suggested that the force should apologise.
“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,” Mr Stansfield observed.
“It was quite unnecessary to put a reputable fifty-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.”
In response to Ms Brown’s account, a Surrey Police spokesperson said they were originally alerted to the potential theft by a man in his 40s and that officers attended a property “where the occupant was questioned about the iPads and denied any knowledge of their whereabouts.”
The spokesperson continued: “However, 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. 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.”
