Tina Ayres with her daughter Pasha. Picture: Dieter Perry.

Crouch End schoolgirl handcuffed and ‘hysterical’ after police raid

by Tim Lamden Thursday, May 3, 2012
7:00 AM

A 12-year-old Crouch End schoolgirl was left “hysterical” after police smashed into her home and handcuffed her in an early-morning raid this week.

Pasha Ayres-Solomon was getting ready to leave her Tottenham home for Hornsey School for Girls, in Inderwick Road, when officers burst into her bedroom at 6.50am on Monday, ordered her to put her hands on her head and handcuffed her.

It is understood officers obtained a warrant to search the top-floor flat in Ashdown Court, Lansdowne Road, after receiving tip-offs that drugs were being used in the property.

Describing the impact on her “nervous” daughter, Tina Ayres, a care worker at a Crouch End centre for the elderly, said: “I think she is going to have a problem staying at home on her own now. It’s taken us a long time to build up her confidence and this is going to have destroyed it again.”

Ms Ayres, 45, said she received a “hysterical” call from her daughter as she made her way to work on the bus: “All I could understand was ‘Mum! Mum! Someone is trying to get in!’”

Officers had smashed into their flat, leaving the door lock still attached to the frame, before storming into Pasha’s bedroom and turning her mother’s room upside down searching for drugs.

No arrests were made following the raid and officers found just a small tool used to grind cannabis in Ms Ayres’ bedroom.

The mother-of-two explained: “The police said they had anonymous intelligence that this address was being used for drugs. They said, ‘We’ve found the grinder,’ and I just put up my hands and said, ‘I smoke now and again.’”

She has contacted the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) over the incident.

Det Supt Stephen Clayman, of Haringey Police, apologised for “any distress” caused but insisted the officers were “responding to information from the community” and had “acted entirely appropriately”.

To obtain a raid warrant, police must provide evidence of criminal activity taking place on a property to a magistrate, who will then decide whether to issue the warrant based on the evidence.

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6 comments

What a sad story, lets not forget the police are just human (sometimes acting like robots) and humans can be disgusting vile creatures playing mental gymnastics to justify what they do in situations like this. Poor little girl, forget the broken door what about her? The police did NOT act appropriately, all that drama for an occasional cannabis smoker? Disgusting, what about the amount of crack dens they could of bust through? Sometimes the police sicken me. Cannabis isnt harmful, just illegal, the police done way more harm in this situation and the family should be compensated. Leave cannabis smokers alone its like a bully picking on the skinny kid when he could pick on someone his own size. If they wanted to stop the harms of cannabis they would LEGALIZE REGULATE AND TAX! Stop throwing harmless stoners in jail, stop jailing people who decide to grow their own so to not fund criminality (which is a victim-less crime) and stop traumatizing little kids when they bust through the door like a bunch of THUGS!

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focusonpeace

Sunday, May 6, 2012
How is that acting entirely appropriately what i got from that is the police need better evidence to be able to obtain warrants. Too many innocent people are having there lives turned upside down for nothing. What I got from this piece is the mothers upset someone so they've dobbed her into the police and they've gone and smashed her door in. Could have just knocked presented the woman with the evidence they'd been given and let her have her say

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Thom Marsh

Sunday, May 6, 2012
How is that acting entirely appropriately what i got from that is the police need better evidence to be able to obtain warrants. Too many innocent people are having there lives turned upside down for nothing. What I got from this piece is the mothers upset someone so they've dobbed her into the police and they've gone and smashed her door in. Could have just knocked presented the woman with the evidence they'd been given and let her have her say

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Thom Marsh

Sunday, May 6, 2012
I applaud police efforts, actions like this disrupt the lives of those kind of people and help keep them in poverty. As rich and poor are relative (ie you can't have rich people without there being poor people) the rich people can make themselves richer by either working for it, monopolising resources with their greater abilities to purchase, or by pushing the poor further into poverty with social and economic policies. Crimestoppers is a wonderful thing too, because it is anonymous all sorts of stuff can be made up without consequence, and if you happen to get lucky and there is an arrest then you can make money off it too.

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iuhgyftdrse iuhgyftdrse

Thursday, May 3, 2012
there is no justification for this type of behaviour by the police. destruction of property and terror tactics are now the norm for our paramilitary thugs. doors can be quickly mended but the psychological damage done to this young girl will take years to get over, if ever. perhaps that's the idea.

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Tony Booth

Thursday, May 3, 2012
there is no justification for this type of behaviour by the police. destruction of property and terror tactics are now the norm for our paramilitary thugs. doors can be quickly mended but the psychological damage done to this young girl will take years to get over, if ever. perhaps that's the idea.

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Tony Booth

Thursday, May 3, 2012