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 send a few mocking and sarcastic comments 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 MailOnline 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.’
