These are the text messages in a school parent Whatsapp group that led to six police officers raiding a couple’s home and arresting them.
Maxie Allen and his partner Rosalind Levine were held in a police cell for eleven hours on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications after a ‘trivial’ dispute.
Their crime was to take part in what became a heated debate about the recruitment process of a new headteacher at the primary school attended by their eldest daughter.
In their messages, the couple are disparaging of the hunt for a new head led by Jackie Spriggs, the chairman of governors.
In what’s been described as a clampdown on free speech, six uniformed police officers later turned up at their suburban home before they were led away in front of their crying daughters.
After a five-week investigation, Hertfordshire Constabulary finally concluded there was no case to answer.
Now can reveal the WhatsApp messages at the heart of the complaint which, though in places could be deemed sarcastic, are clearly far from ‘abusive or malicious’.
As the various parents involved in the Whatsapp group discuss goings on at the school, Ms Levine ironically predicted her own fate after parents were sent a letter warning them about such communications.
She wrote in the WhatsApp group: ‘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?’
Mr Allen chips in and wrote: ‘No public body has the power to control what people say about it.’
Another parent replied: ‘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.’
Supporting his partner, Mr Allen chips in and wrote: ‘No public body has the power to control what people say about it.’
Another parent replied: ‘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.’
Ms Levine added: ‘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.’
Supporting her view, another parent wrote: ‘Everyone’s talking about it in the playground as well. It’s ridiculous.’
Friends of a couple have spoken of their ‘shock and anger’ at the couple’s arrest for comments made in the Whatsapp group.
One fellow mum-of-two, a former member of the same WhatsApp group, told : ‘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.’
Mr Allen, 50, a Times Radio producer, has branded the police action ‘dystopian’ and a ‘massive overreach’, and accused Cowley Hill Primary School of trying to ‘silence awkward parents’.
The trouble started brewing at the school in May 2024, six months after the headteacher announced his retirement, when Mr Allen questioned why deputy head Louise Thomas had been appointed ‘acting head’ and no open recruitment process had yet begun.
Mr Allen, a former governor himself, hoped there would be a meeting to explain the process — but his questions went unanswered.
Shortly afterwards Mrs Spriggs told parents that ‘inflammatory and defamatory’ comments had been seen on social media and warned that the school would take action against anyone who caused ‘disharmony’.
Mr Allen and TV producer Ms Levine, 46, were later banned from the school’s premises for ‘casting aspersions’ on Mrs Spriggs.
They say they were blocked from attending a parents’ evening for their daughter Sascha, nine, and her Christmas performance. They began emailing the school to address Sascha’s needs as she suffers from epilepsy, is neurodivergent and registered disabled.
On January 29, Ms Levine was clearing out toys for charity and looking after her three-year-old daughter, Francesa, when there was a knock at the front door of their home in Borehamwood.
She said: ‘I saw six police officers standing there. There were two cars and a police van. My first thought was that Sascha was dead. I could not think of any other reason why six police officers would be at my door. Francesca was cowering in the corner, she was terrified.’
Mr Allen said: ‘I believe the school tried to use the police to close down legitimate inquiries, and for some reason the constabulary played along.’
Another mum, a former parent at the school, claimed she had been ‘screamed at’ by head-teacher Ms Thomas when she was deputy, over comments in a separate WhatsApp group the mother had set up.
‘She took exception to comments that had been made in the group which had been passed onto her and screamed at me, telling me to delete the entire group, or she would call the police,’ she told .
‘So when I heard what happened to Maxie and Ros, I wasn’t as surprised as some people.
‘There does seem to be a concerted effort to silence criticism and somehow the police have been willing to be used as part of that.’
Local County councillor Michelle Vince tried to help the couple but said she was ‘astonished’ at the way the case was handled by the police.
Ms Vince told : ‘To arrest Mr Allen and Ms Levine was clearly way over the top, but when I saw that they’d sent six officers to the address, I thought back to an elderly lady I was helping who was plagued by drug dealing outside her house, and we were trying to get her moved to somewhere safer.
Ms Vince and MP (and former Deputy Prime Minister) Oliver Dowden found themselves recipients of veiled legal threats from Hertfordshire Police when they took an interest in the long-running affair.
She added: ‘I emailed the school to see what steps were being taken to resolve this dispute and I received an email from a PC who was investigating the case telling me (and anyone I’d CC’d into the email, which included Mr Dowden), that we should essentially ‘butt out’, or face the threat of prosecution ourselves.’
The email, seen by , signed by a PC Oliver Limb, says: ‘I ask that your communication [with the school] as a third party ceases from this point onwards as you may find yourself being recorded as a suspect in a harassment investigation.
‘I also ask that this warning to yourself is forwarded to any party that you have CC’d following your email.’
Mr Dowden told the Times: ‘I’m astonished that a situation could have arisen where any police officer could think it would be remotely acceptable to suggest that an MP should be curtailed in carrying out their democratic duties.
‘As the chief constable has promised, it’s essential we get to the bottom of what happened here.
‘And as a society we need to rebalance the culture on this, so that police focus on shoplifting, burglary and other crimes that rightly concern my constituents, and don’t get bogged down and interfere in legitimate public debate.’
Yesterday, as they took a step back from the limelight to concentrate on their family, Mr Allen and Ms Levine, who have moved their daughter to a different school, told : ‘What we’d really like to come out of this would be transparency – on the part of the school and the police as well. ‘
Ms Levine added: ‘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.’
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 county council said Ms Thomas had been appointed as interim head for one term before a proper recruitment process was carried out, adding: ‘The role was advertised publicly, and the recruitment was supported by external professional advisers. We are confident that this was a fair, transparent and timely process.’
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.
‘In relation to the police visit on 20 December, a complaint was submitted which was reviewed by our Professional Standards Department. It was deemed that the service provided by officers was appropriate.’
Andy Prophet, the chief constable, said: ‘As the new chief constable for Hertfordshire my priorities are to fight crime, arrest criminals and build public trust and confidence. We will do this by tackling violent and sexual crime, street robbery, burglary, car and shop theft. I am equally focused on supporting my officers and staff in the difficult judgments they have to make on our behalf every day.’