Woman arrested after Facebook posts about her Met police officer ex-partner

A woman was arrested by police, who sent a riot van to her door at dawn, after she posted about her ex-partner, a serving Metropolitan police officer, on Facebook.

- Hannah Al-Othman

Sarah* had been alerted by a friend to a post about her former partner in a local Facebook group linked to "Are we dating the same guy?" The group is part of a global network of similar Facebook pages used by women to seek information about their partners, and warn others of "red flags" from men they have dated.

Sarah commented on the original post, saying she and her ex-boyfriend were together for almost five years, "and then he cheated on me and gaslit me saying I was wrong".

She then made her own post in the group, warning other women about the man. "I was basically just saying that I just want to warn other women," she said.

Through the group, she said, she found out more details about her ex-partner's behaviour while they were together, and sent him two messages. In one she described him as a "pussy", and blocked his number. "I messaged him and said, the audacity of you to blame me for the breakdown of our relationship," she said. "I thought nothing of it until the 13th of May, when I got a knock on my door, well, banging on my door, at 4.45 in the morning."