Patsy Stevenson, the woman who was pictured being arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Monday after she claimed she was approached by police officers on a dating app.
The 28-year-old, whose image of her being handcuffed at the vigil on 13th March went viral, spoke about the police officers, or people pretending to be police officers, swiping her profile on Tinder.
Watch a clip from the interview below:
Patsy says she uses Tinder Gold which allows users to see the profiles that have swiped them to ‘match’.
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“Because I had Tinder Gold I could see who was swiping on me, who was trying to show me they was swiping on me,” she explains.
“Also, they can see that I have Tinder Gold and they would know I would be able to see them swiping on me.
“I didn’t match with any of them. I didn’t engage with any of them, I wouldn’t want to and it was quite a few at the same time.”
She then explained how she initially thought all the police officers swiping her profile was initially “just a coincidence”.
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However, after someone told her Tinder profiles can be shared, she called the situation “scary”.
“I hope that it wasn’t an intimidation tactic," she said.
Co-presenter Susanna Reid highlighted that Patsy is now someone with a “national profile” and asked whether she thought the men might be genuinely interested in dating her.
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“But you think it’s something very deliberate, don’t you? It’s not just police officers showing interest it’s actually an intimidation tactic,” she asked.
Patsy first opened up about her experiences on Tinder following her arrest with the BBC last week.
During the arrest, Patsy was handcuffed and held down by two officers and she was later issued with a £200 fine.
She has since launched legal action against the Met Police due to the now viral arrest.
Since the arrest in March, Patsy said “about 50” police officers and security guards had approached her on the dating app.
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“They were all in uniform on their profiles or it said 'I'm a police officer'," she explained. "I do not understand why someone would do that.
"It is almost like an intimidation thing, saying 'look we can see you', and that, to me, is terrifying.
"They know what I went through and they know that I'm fearful of police and they've done that for a reason."
Good Morning Britain airs on ITV weekdays at 6am.
Featured Image Credit: ITVTopics: TV And Film, Sarah Everard, News, Good Morning Britain