The Metropolitan Police will call six officers to give evidence at a trial later this year against a woman accused of breaching Covid-19 laws by attending a vigil for murdered Sarah Everard.

Vivien Hohmann, 20, is one of six people prosecuted by the force following a spontaneous gathering on Clapham Common in south London on March 13 last year.

A planned socially distanced event proposed by Reclaim These Streets (RTS) was cancelled when organisers were threatened by the Met with £10,000 fines.

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The force’s policing of the vigil, which followed the kidnap, rape and murder of marketing executive Ms Everard, 33, by serving Pc Wayne Couzens, was heavily criticised after women were handcuffed on the ground and led away by officers.

News of the prosecutions of attendees for alleged breaches of coronavirus regulations, while London was under Tier 4 restrictions, sparked further anger.

Dania Al-Obeid, 27, from Stratford, east London, Ben Wheeler, 21, from Kennington, south London, Kevin Godin-Prior, 68, from Manchester, and Jade Spence, 33, from Lambeth, south London, were all convicted in their absence by a magistrate at behind-closed-doors Single Justice Procedure hearings at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Ms Hohmann, from Clapham, and Jenny Edmunds, 32, of Lewisham, south London, pleaded not guilty by post and Ms Hohmann appeared for a case management hearing at City of London Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

The court heard that the Met will call six police officers, including an inspector and a chief inspector, at the trial of Ms Hohmann in front of a district judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on October 3 and 5.

Her lawyer, Simon Natas, said “lawful arrest” will not be the central issue in the case, but added: “Of course it will be an issue in the sense that an arrest for somebody who was simply attending a public gathering does raise an issue of whether that was a proportionate response on the part of the police.”

Ms Edmunds is due to attend a case management hearing next month.

The Met previously said all six cases were brought to court because the fines imposed for alleged breaches of Covid rules were not paid, with a total of nine fixed penalty notices issued.

Two were paid, and one was dropped with no further action.

A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services concluded that police “acted appropriately” when dealing with the event, but also found it was a “public relations disaster” and described some statements made by members of the force as “tone deaf”.

The Met were twice refused permission to appeal against a High Court ruling which concluded they breached the rights of the RTS organisers.

Jessica Leigh, Anna Birley, Henna Shah and Ms Klingler argued that decisions made in advance of the planned vigil amounted to a breach of their human rights to freedom of speech and assembly, and said the force did not assess the potential risk to public health.

In a ruling in March, their claim was upheld by Lord Justice Warby and Mr Justice Holgate, who found that the Met’s decisions in the run-up to the event were “not in accordance with the law”.

Couzens, 49, is serving a whole-life sentence after admitting kidnapping, raping and murdering Ms Everard.