Riz Choudhry

A WOMEN’S safety volunteer who was cuffed and left in a cell for 15 hours for handing out rape alarms told MPs how he lost faith in the police as he appeared before an emergency meeting in the House of Commons this week.

Riz Choudhry, 47, was one of Westminster’s Night Stars arrested before Charles III’s coronation under new public order legislation brought into force just days earlier. He spoke about his ordeal in Soho Square at a hastily arranged select committee meeting on Wednesday.

After the meeting Mr Choudhry told Extra he felt “brutalised” by the Territorial Support Group officers, adding: “Trust the police? No. I do not trust them. They’ve refused to apologise to us. I would say to people, just be wary because the police are not your friends. I don’t like saying that.”

He added that he also felt singled out during the arrest because of the colour of his skin, adding: “My message to the police I would say, obviously, think before you act and try not to treat people of colour differently.”

Describing the evidence to the committee given by the Metropolitan Police Service (temporary) assistant commissioner Matt Twist, Mr Choudhry said: “They were asking him a whole bunch of questions about policing laws and who was he influenced by. He said he had a briefing with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, and Sadiq Khan on the Friday evening.

Marks visible on Mr Choudhry’s wrist

“He told them about what the threats were and that the police were trying to be proactive.”
Mr Choudhry said that the officer had denied the police were pressurised, but added, “…he was always going to deny that”.

Mr Choudhry said he started volunteering for Westminster City Council’s Night Stars team, which is backed by the home office and the MPS, because he wanted to help people, particularly vulnerable young adults.

The non-paid role sees volunteers standing in the early hours in Soho handing out rape alarms and flip-flops to women who might be in danger of abuse on their way home from a night out.

Recalling the arrests, he said: “I was cuffed for nearly four-and-a-half hours. They said: ‘We believe that you are going to be disrupting the king’s coronation tomorrow’.

“I was thinking what the hell is this? Is this a joke? But, no, they were serious. They had tasers.”

Mr Choudhry said he was “violently sick” due to stress and his phone is still confiscated.

Until that evening, he always had a good relationship with the police, he said, often stopping for a chat with local policing teams in Westminster.

Council leader Adam Hug wrote to MPS commissioner Sir Mark Rowley last week asking for an apology to the three Night Stars. But there has been no response and Sir Mark has not apologised publicly.

In a written response to the Mayor of London about criticism of overall policing, the commissioner said: “Had our officers not acted on reasonable grounds, based on the evidence in front of them in the moment and the potential risk to the event, there would now be much more serious questions to answer about the event. Protest was not banned. While we said that our tolerance for disruption of the coronation celebrations was low, it was not zero.”