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:
We came here today to deliver a letter to the police. Unfortunately, we have not been able to do that, but they very kindly joined us. Let’s read that letter out to them.
I am writing as a deeply concerned resident of Epsom to formally request clarity and assurance following reports of a serious and distressing incident that is said to have taken place locally. It has been widely discussed within the community that a 20-year-old woman was subjected to a prolonged and violent assault, reportedly occurring in a churchyard and occurring for a significant period of time.
What is compounding this concern is the apparent lack of publicly available information regarding the incident. There has been no clear communication about whether suspects have been identified, apprehended or whether there is any longer a risk to the public. The absence of detail has led to widespread speculation, misinformation and growing unease within the community.
As residents, we fully appreciate the need for discretion during active investigations. However, we believe it is essential that the public is provided with appropriate updates and reassurances, particularly when an incident of this severity has occurred. At present, many women and girls in Epsom feel uncertain about their safety.”
The Methodist Church on whose street frontage the gang rape is said to have taken place condemned the protest, with it’s priest Reverend Catherine Hutton acknowledging that while nothing on “this scale of horror” had ever happened in Epsom before, nevertheless “hate cannot drive out hate”. With this in mind, the Church held an “act of hope” community event on Thursday ” so we can stand together and declare we are good people”.
Local Parliamentarian Maguire again spoke out against the protest during the Church service, reports The Daily Mail, calling it “awful” and an attempt to fan “the flames of division completely unnecessarily”.
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