Police Clash With Protesters, Order Public Not to Speculate on Perpetrators, After Gang Rape in Leafy English Suburb
by Oliver JJ Lane
Protesters accused police of obfuscating and withholding details about the alleged perpetrators of a gang rape of a young woman in the leafy Surrey town of Epsom.
Police in riot gear faced down protesters in Epsom, a wealthy commuter-belt town on the outskirts of London, on Wednesday night. The Surrey town was rocked by the news of a gang rape of a young woman outside a church in the town-centre in the early hours of Saturday morning, and tensions have grown since police appealed to the public for information, yet released absolutely no descriptions of the alleged perpetrators nor images to aid identification.
Police said in a statement: “While we have already carried out extensive inquiries, we do not have sufficient information at this time to update you with the descriptions of the suspects.”
Yet locals say the town centre, where the gang rape of a woman in her 20s on her way home from the town’s Labyrinth Epsom nightclub took place, is blanketed with security cameras. At Wednesday’s protests, locals accused the police of having turned up mob-handed and said women and girls living in the area felt afraid because police — in their opinion — were refusing to be forthcoming about potential threats.
Meanwhile, the local Member of Parliament for Epsom, the Liberal Democrat’s Helen Maguire criticised the protesters, claiming the event had been hijacked by “right-wing online activists” who want to “fan the flames of divisiveness”, reports the BBC. She said: “To those who have come into Epsom from outside our community to spread division and cause disruption, take it elsewhere, it won’t be tolerated”.
The police also warned off the public, stating both that they “will not tolerate disorder” and that the public should not speculate about who might be behind the attack, given “this may lead to additional tensions within our local communities”. During the protest, rubbish, eggs, and potted plants were said to have been thrown at officers, and in at least one case a road cone was hurled too.
During Wednesday night’s protest, a member of the crowd equipped with a loudhailer read a “formal” letter to officers which he said they had attempted to hand over to the police force, but had been rebuffed. The Daily Telegraph records he said: