Met chief claims coronation protesters ‘wanted to throw paint and vandalise monuments’ as he defends arrests
Police had received intelligence protesters were planning to throw paint and vandalise monuments during Saturday’s coronation, the Commissioner of the Met Police has said, as he defended the arrest of dozens of demonstrators.
In an op-ed published in the Evening Standard on Tuesday, Sir Mark Rowley said the threat to the coronation was so “concerning” that the Home Secretary and Mayor of London were given late night police briefings on Friday night, just 12 hours before the event.
A total of 64 arrests were made at the coronation on Saturday for various offences including breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.
The Met has come under heavy criticism for its policing of the event, with Human Rights Watch describing their action as “something you would expect to see in Moscow not London”.
On Monday, the Met was forced into an embarrassing climbdown over the arrest of six anti-monarchy campaigners after the force said it found no evidence they were planning to lock themselves onto objects.
But Sir Mark has defended the policing of the coronation, describing the occassion as “one of the most significant events the Met has ever policed“.
He said the force became concerned on Friday evening about “a rapidly developing intelligence picture suggesting the coronation could suffer”.
He added: “This included people intent on using rape alarms and loudhailers as part of their protest which would have caused distress to military horses.
“We also had intelligence that people intended to extensively vandalise monuments, throw paint at the procession, and incur on to the route.”
Sir Mark challenged the assertion that there had been a “protest ban” at the coronation, arguing such a description was “simply not accurate”.
He said there were hundreds of undisturbed protesters along the coronation procession route, including a large group in Trafalgar Square.
Sir Mark said it was “frustrating” that there were things the Met could not share with the public as investigations are ongoing, but did confirm that people were found with “possible lock on devices”.
People pretending to be stewards were also found in posession of plastic bottles containing white paint “which we believe were specifically to be used to criminally disrupt the procession”, he said.
Sir Mark said he was “immensely proud” of the work of Met officers and was grateful that he was “not currently trying to explain why we failed to prevent the perfect coronation celebration being significantly disrupted”.
“In the coming weeks, months and years we will deal with further challenging events,” he added.
