Couple arrested after school WhatsApp chat messages say they 'cannot fathom what happened'

29 March 2025, 14:49 | Updated: 29 March 2025, 23:04

A couple arrested after a dispute with their daughter's school say they "cannot fathom what happened" and have described the moment six officers turned up at their home as "inexplicable".

Maxie Allen, 50, and Rosalind Levine, 46, from Borehamwood, were detained in January by Hertfordshire Police and held in a police cell for eight hours following the dispute, which included messages shared on a parents' WhatsApp chat.

After Hertfordshire Police officers detained them in front of their younger daughter, aged three, their home was searched, and they were questioned on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications, and causing a nuisance on school property.

Police concluded that there should be no further action after a five-week investigation, The Times newspaper first reported.

The row with Cowley Hill Primary School started after Mr Allen complained about the recruitment process for a new head teacher.

The school then contacted police after it objected to the parents sending several emails and criticising staff on a private parents' WhatsApp group. The school claimed the couple were making "disparaging and inflammatory" remarks. They were also blocked from attending parents' evening.

"We don't know how school personnel acquired our private WhatsApp messages, we've asked the question and they've not explained," Mr Allen said.

"We can only presume that somebody in the group was screenshotting them and sending them to someone who worked in the school."

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Mr Allen and Ms Levine's daughter, nine-year-old Sascha, suffers from epilepsy and is neurodivergent, but the couple say they were not allowed to meet teachers to discuss her medical conditions.

When the six police officers first arrived at their door, Ms Levine thought her daughter had died.

When she asked if everything was okay, she said the officers did not answer and instead instructed her to go into the house. She added that she was "momentarily relieved that I'm being arrested."

Mr Allen was on a work call and only released he was being arrested when he saw two police officers in the background of his Zoom meeting.

The number of police officers who arrived to arrest the couple has left them searching for answers.

Mr Allen told Sky News: "When you watch the doorbell footage, you think, what are these six police officers doing? What is this operation?

"Is it a terror cell, is it a drug den they're about to raid? No, it was two parents in a dispute with the school. I would like to know how [Hertfordshire Police] made that decision, that that was the appropriate and necessary operation."

He added: "I don't know if we're the first parents to have an experience like this, but I hope we're the last."

Ms Levine said the incident remains "inexplicable" to her and Mr Allen.

"We cannot fathom what happened, it doesn't make any sense. We made a few inquiries, we had a bit of banter on a WhatsApp group, and then we were arrested," she said.

"I think the school overreacted by going to the police but ultimately the problem here and what happened to us lies with the police because the police ultimately were the ones who made that decision to come and arrest us."

Mr Allen claimed: "This feels like a case of a public authority trying to use the police to close down legitimate inquiry and for some reason Hertfordshire Police played along with it.

"If the police had a complaint, we can't understand why they didn't just ask us in for an interview where we could organise childcare and do it in a proper civil manner.

"What we cannot grasp is how on earth they thought the right thing to do was to send six police officers and three cars to our house, arrest both of us and search the property out of nowhere - that does not make sense," he added.

In a statement, Hertfordshire Police said: "Following reports of harassment and malicious communications, which are criminal offences, a man and a woman from Borehamwood, both aged in their 40s, 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."

A spokesperson for Cowley Hill Primary School said: "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 the school's published complaints procedure," the school's statement said.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: "Following the departure of the former headteacher, an interim head was appointed for the one term to allow time for a proper recruitment process to be carried out.

"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."