Woman wrongly arrested over riots feels 'violated'

A woman who was wrongly arrested on suspicion of throwing bricks at police officers during the Southport riots has told how she "felt violated".

Jacqueline Cowdall, 53, was shopping at Marks and Spencer when she was alerted by her digital doorbell to eight police officers on the driveway of her home in Toxteth, Liverpool.

Former traffic warden Cowdall was held in custody for more than four hours before Merseyside Police accepted she was not a rioter captured on CCTV footage, based partly on a distinctive birthmark on her arm.

The force has now settled a legal claim for wrongful arrest, but denies any fault and told the BBC it had acted on information "deemed reliable at the time".

Cowdall, who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), said she felt like she had been "burgled" after returning home to find her neatly organised and colour co-ordinated wardrobes - and even her underwear drawer - had been rifled through by officers during a search.

"I don't think I've been in shock or traumatised as much as I was when my parents passed away, because I couldn't get my head round what has happened, and it was the same," she said.

Mass disorder began in Southport on 30 July 2024, the day after three schoolgirls - Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar - were murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town on 29 July 2024.

Fuelled by misinformation spreading on social media, the rioting spread nationally and led to hundreds of people being prosecuted and jailed.

It later emerged that Merseyside Police had received a tip-off suggesting Cowdall was the woman pictured in the footage, and compared it to a three-year-old photograph, which they concluded was similar enough to arrest her.

Cowdall said she went "jelly-legged" on 27 March last year when she saw the large contingent of officers at her front door.

She said: "I was like is everything ok? Is everything ok with my family?".

Cowdall was able to speak with officers over her digital doorbell app, who said they needed to speak to her "urgently", refusing to explain any further.

She was ordered to attend Edge Hill police station "within the hour", which she agreed to do.

When she arrived, with a neighbour alongside her for moral support, she was immediately placed under arrest and driven to a custody suite in Belle Vale.

The officers also took her house keys after she consented to a search, which she later learned was to look for clothing the suspect had been recorded wearing on the day.

She was escorted to a cell where she was left "beside myself with worry" for about four hours before being interviewed.

Her confusion grew in the interview room when she said she was asked how she would feel if a "migrant lived next door".

"I said I'd welcome them with a good dinner," Cowdall recalled.

"I grew up in Liverpool 8 all my life, full of diversity you know. I don't see colour or religion, I just see people, so I was a bit bamboozled."

She was then told she would be shown CCTV footage of her throwing bricks at police officers in Southport.

"They showed me the video footage of the girl, you know, all bricks flying and vans getting hit, coppers getting hit, you name it, it was happening," Cowdall said.

"I'm like, that's clearly not me. He was like 'no, it clearly is you'."

Cowdall stuck to her guns said she started pointing out to the interviewing officers obvious differences between her appearance and the woman in the video.

She highlighted the fact the woman appeared to be younger and had a larger build, a smaller nose and lighter skin.

But it was when she took off her top to reveal a birthmark on her right arm - which was not present on the woman in the video - that the penny dropped.

"I said, 'well, did I forget to put that on for the occasion?'" Cowdall recalled.

"That's when they were sort of all looking at each other, as if to say, 'oh, right, OK'."

After the interview concluded, Cowdall was placed back into a cell for more than an hour - fearing she would be remanded in custody - before being told she would be released with no further action.

When she returned home she said she was devastated to find the results of the search.

"Everything was just ransacked and everything was just misplaced everywhere," she said.

"I felt like not only were they looking at it, they were removing it from one place to another, which was unnecessary."

Cowdall's solicitor, Erin Sunderland, of law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, said the fact her client had attended the station voluntarily meant an arrest had been "unnecessary".

"Mistakes can happen, but to be arrested, that's one of the most significant intrusions on somebody's liberty that can take place," she said.

"I don't think it can really be minimised down to just a simple mistake, a few hours in police custody, no further action, no problem, because Jacqueline is going to have to live with this impact."

A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said Cowdall's arrest came as part of an investigation into "appalling" large-scale disorder which required a "huge volume" of CCTV to be reviewed.

The force said: "As part of this approach, we circulated images of certain people in the public domain and this led to information that identified this individual.

"Having received that information, Merseyside Police were duty bound to take steps to investigate the report.

"The information was deemed to be reliable at the time and we acted with the aim of seeking justice and protecting our communities."

The force confirmed the woman filmed attacking police had since been identified and prosecuted.

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