Social media users have claimed that a woman who was arrested during a vigil for Sarah Everard is a crisis actress. There is no evidence that this is true.
Everard disappeared when she walked home in south London on March 3 and a police officer is charged with her kidnapping and murder, sparking a national debate over how British society handles male violence against women.
But the focus shifted to London Metropolitan Police after officers tried to spread a vigilance for Everard in Clapham Common, saying it violated COVID-19 lock-in rules.
During the event, a woman named Patsy Stevenson was photographed pinned to the ground, handcuffed and arrested by male officers.
Since then, conspiracies about her arrest have spread across social media, a choice of which will be discussed below.
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Several posts (here) (here) claim that Stevenson is an actress employed by the Metropolitan Police.
A Met police spokesman told Reuters in an email: “There is no truth in these allegations”.
Although she does have a cast profile (here), Stevenson said it is old and not related to her attendance of the night vigil.
“It was an old profile years and years ago. I’m not hired by anyone. I just wanted to put down a candle,” Stevenson told ITV’s Good Morning Britain (Timecode – 09:30 youtu.be/LYml7Vy_Ooo ? t = 568).
“I’m not an actress. I study at the university where I am an ambassador for women in STEM, for women in physics and things like that.
“That’s why it was so important, and it still is, the message is very important and must continue.”
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Some social media users falsely claimed that Stevenson was also pictured three years ago (here) (here) (here) on a bomb attack on the London Underground.
In 2017, a homemade bomb fired flames through a wagon at London’s Parsons Green station during the Friday morning rush hour (here).
At the time, an injured woman, who, like Stevenson, had red hair, was photographed leaving the scene with police officers.
Images of this woman have been circulating on social media along with photos of Stevenson, with users claiming to be the same person.
Although both women have the same hair color, they are apparently different people.
According to news reports, the woman who was injured during the bombing in 2017 is called Victoria Holloway (here) (here).
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One post (here) has been shared more than 700 times on Facebook, claiming that someone she paid to follow her took a viral picture of Stevenson’s arrest.
The photo shows Stevenson looking directly into the lens of the camera while being held by police officers.
“… she poses and grumbles for the photographer she paid to follow her to capture this exact moment”, the report claims.
However, the photo was taken by a Reuters photographer as part of the news coverage of the event (here). Stevenson did not pay her to follow her.
VERDICT
Untrue. Stevenson is not employed by the Met Police Department as an actress. Stevenson was not the woman injured during the 2017 Parson Green bombing. The viral photo of Patsy Stevenson was taken by a Reuters photographer who covered the night watch.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.