WOMEN of the YEAR
CAMPAIGNER
Following a traumatic incident with the Metropolitan Police at the Sarah Everard vigil on Clapham Common, the physics student-turned-activist has dedicated herself to defending the rights of women
HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY LUCIE PEMBERTON, USING BUMBLE AND BUMBLE AND CHANTECAILLE
PATSY STEVENSON HAS BEEN WAITING TO share her story for more than two years. After Metropolitan Police officers pinned her down and handcuffed her when she attended a March 2021 vigil in tribute to Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a serving officer, she began a legal battle to challenge their conduct. It required her to stay silent about what happened – until she finally won her case in September.
When we meet over coffee, her voice is raspy, strained from overuse only a few days after being able to talk freely. ‘It finally went while I was debating women’s rights at a pub,’ she tells me. ‘I felt it starting to crack, but I had to finish my point…’
Stevenson never planned to become an activist, though she had long been passionate about gender equality. At the time of her arrest, she was a 28-year-old physics student at Royal Holloway, eager to create more opportunities for young women interested in STEM subjects. She, like many others, had felt harrowed by the circumstances of Everard’s death, and had come to Clapham Common with a friend to pay her respects. This was during the second Covid-19 lockdown, and the socially distanced event planned by Reclaim These Streets had been cancelled after the Met threatened the group with a £10,000 fine. (A year later, High Court judges ruled that the Met had breached the rights of the organisers.) Nevertheless, people turned up throughout the day – including the then
Duchess of Cambridge – to lay flowers and light candles. But when night fell, the police started to shut down the vigil, forcibly removing women from the scene.
‘It was very cold and the atmosphere was solemn. People were crying. As we moved through the crowd, I could feel that something was wrong; more and more police were appearing on the outskirts,’ recalls Stevenson. Carrying a candle, she approached the tributes at the bandstand, where a woman was delivering a speech. The platform started to fill with police officers and there was a commotion. ‘I could hear cries, then someone put her hand out to me and asked if I could come up to help.’
The police claimed that they had told individuals to leave but that when people refused, they took action – kettling and arresting the mourners on the bandstand, where Stevenso
