Woman wrongfully arrested for rioting says ordeal left her traumatized

Jacqueline Cowdall, 53, from Liverpool, Merseyside, was named in a tip-off before officers compared the footage from the Southport riots with a three-year-old photograph of her.

Eight officers then descended on her home on March 27, 2025, while she was shopping in Marks & Spencer, ordering her through her Ring doorbell to report to Edge Hill police station within an hour.

She said: "When I saw the officers on my camera I was asking them if something had happened to my family and they just shouted for me to open the door.

"They said I had to get to a police station within an hour.

"I was shaking so much I couldn't hold a pen to write down where I was meant to go."

Riots erupted in Southport on July 30, 2024, the day after Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were murdered in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

After being notified of police at her property, Jacqueline raced home to find officers crowded around her home.

She said: "When I got home my neighbors were asking what I had done as they don't send eight officers for nothing.

"I could barely get my words out to say I have never done anything wrong in my life.

"When me and my neighbor drove to the police station 12 officers came out and formed a line.

"I turned to my neighbor and said 'oh my God, I'm going to be arrested.'"

She added: "I stepped out of the car and an officer aggressively grabbed my phone off me before arresting me for violent disorder at the Southport riots.

"I later learned one of the officers told the sergeant 'she doesn't look like the girl in the photo'."

She was questioned over allegations she had assaulted officers, thrown objects at them and looted a shop during the riots.

But Jacqueline said the woman in the footage was not her, pointing out several differences.

She said officers only accepted they had arrested the wrong woman after she showed them a distinctive birthmark on her arm.

Jacqueline said: "The police showed me footage of the rioter they thought was me and it clearly wasn't.

"Apart from the fact the woman was younger and larger than me she also didn't have a distinctive birthmark I have on my arm.

"When I pointed that out they realised it wasn't me, but still put me in a cell for another hour and a half."

She was detained for almost four and a half hours before eventually being released with no further action.

She returned home to discover officers had searched the property and left it in disarray.

Jacqueline, who lives alone, worked as a traffic warden for more than 20 years and suffers from OCD.

She said: "I was absolutely mortified that officers had been trampling all over my house and bed in their boots, going through everything including my knicker drawer.

"Because of my OCD everything was in order on my house and nobody had ever been in my house in shoes.

"I was wounded by so many men coming into my home and went through everything.

"It has left me feeling unsafe in my own home. I've had to replace my bed, carpets and most of my clothes.

"The whole episode completely traumatized me and severely impacted my mental health.

"I will never trust the police ever again. I want an apology from Merseyside Police for the trauma they put me through."

Jacqueline instructed lawyers at Broudie Jackson Canter and brought a civil claim over her arrest.

Merseyside Police has now agreed to pay her an out-of-court settlement.

Lawyer Erin Sunderland said Jacqueline was "put through a deeply distressing ordeal that left her feeling violated and unsafe".

Merseyside Police denies fault despite settling the civil claim.

A spokesperson added that the arrest came as part of "a thorough and complex investigation" involving "a huge volume of CCTV and footage".

They said the force was "duty bound to take steps to investigate the report" and that "information was deemed to be reliable at the time."

The real offender captured in the footage was subsequently identified and prosecuted.