Al-Obeid called the police’s apology “empowering” but highlighted that victims of abuse needed support that simply couldn’t be provided by the police. “The police are not the right organisation to be on the frontline for victims of violence. They just end up re-traumatising them… I will continue speaking out about the abuse that goes on in police forces and their lack of support for victims of abuse,” she said.

Al-Obeid and Stevenson were arrested at the vigil on 13 March 2021 and later convicted, along with several other women, for breaching coronavirus restrictions. Al-Obeid was initially ordered to pay a £220 fine, £100 in court costs and a £34 victim surcharge by a magistrate at Westminster magistrates’ court. Al-Obeid was also due to face a full trial in 2022, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) halted proceedings and notified lawyers that it was not in the public interest.

A spokesperson for the Met said of the case: “A protracted legal dispute is not in the interests of any party, least of all the complainants who we recognise have already experienced significant distress as a result of this incident. The most appropriate decision, to minimise the ongoing impact on all involved, was to reach an agreed settlement.”

Stevenson and Al-Obeid were part of thousands of women who attended the vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham last year after she was kidnapped and murdered in March 2021.

The vigil was planned by Reclaim These Streets, an organisation aiming to make the streets safe for women, but after they pulled out of the planning, the direct action group Sisters Uncut kept up the momentum.

2 women arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil are paid damages by the Met police