Leeds United fan files police complaint after 'cruel' Elland Road treatment and not guilty verdict

Sarah Widdowson was arrested and taken to Elland Road police station during the May 4 game against Southampton in 2024. The 47-year-old lifelong Leeds fan was accused of aiming racial abuse at a player and later also charged with swearing in public. Last month she was found not guilty of both charges at Leeds Magistrates.

She has now made an official complaint to West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate because her two sons were left in the ground while she was taken to the police station. Sarah says she informed arresting officers that her eldest son Jack, now 18, is autistic and was therefore not suitable to look after James who was four at the time.

Sarah wasn't planning to go to the game, which could have seen Leeds promoted, having injured her ankle in a fall. Her sons, however, were desperate to go. James had been going to games from four weeks old and they all had South Stand season tickets. She recalls watching most of the first half on a TV in the concourse with James, because she needed to be close to the bathroom having felt sick due to medication.

"Just before half-time I returned to my seat with James, because obviously everyone's coming down for a pint," she told the YEP. "I was sat down and two police officers walked by, went into [section] FA4. I didn't pay any attention to it because it was nothing to do with me. But the two of them came over to me and said that they would like a word. Everybody around me said, why? What for? And the female officer leant over and said 'if you don't come with us now we're going to handcuff you in front of your children.' I didn't want that. I thought it's not going to be anything major, because nothing has happened. So they told everybody around me and the kids that I'd be back in five minutes. I was walked in front of the stand up onto the ramp where the big television is. The male officer spoke to somebody else, a plain clothes guy and he said something like 'you're under arrest for racially aggravated public disorder.'"

Sarah says her first response was along the lines of 'you're joking' but her thoughts quickly turned to her children.

"I told them my eldest has autism, he isn't suitable to be responsible for my youngest," she said. "I was told that they'd sort that. I was a little bit in shock, really. I was escorted out, searched in front of the mounted police section, who I've always gone over to. I've known all the horses over the years, and the sergeant was there. So that was really humiliating. They put me in the cell for near five hours. I kept asking about my kids. Nobody knew where my kids were. Then I was told some hours later that my kids were in reception, after I'd interviewed."

Believing it could all be resolved quickly and easily and keen to get back to her children, Sarah interviewed without a solicitor. She asked police to speak to the three male stewards positioned directly in front of her and a Sky cameraman, all of whom would have heard if anything racist had been said. She claims a regular South Stand steward spoke to the cameraman, who confirmed he had heard nothing of that nature at any point.

Once officers had completed the interview, one of them led Sarah to the reception where she expected to find her sons.

"My kids weren't there at all," she said. "Jack does have a phone, but because of the way his brain works, it never occurred to him to ring someone. They've been left the full second half in the ground. Even after I told the officer. He'd asked me, have they any money? And I said no, I have the money. Somebody who sits next to me brought them over to Elland Road police station because they were all waiting for me to come back, they were all told I was only going to be five minutes. So they were left in the reception area. Weren't offered a drink of water or anything. Their dad rang Jack and asked 'what are you doing? Where are you?' And Jack said, 'oh mummy's been arrested and we don't know why.'"

Sarah says the boys' uncle came to collect them from the station but he was not asked to prove his relationship to them and they were simply allowed to leave.

What followed was an email from Leeds United that Sarah describes as 'really rude' and the suspension of their season tickets. She was issued with a football banning order preventing her from going near Elland Road and being at Leeds train station on match days. The family missed Leeds' trip to Wembley. The club said that Jack could not bring James to games in Sarah's absence because he was Under 18, but she replied to point out that she would never let him. Jack was 'devastated' to miss the play-off final.

It took 16 months for Sarah to get her day in court. She was found not guilty of both charges and took issue with the testimonies of the steward who made the allegation and the arresting officer.

"The steward who complained about me said I was holding a baby, just a couple of months old who couldn't walk," she said. "I had James, and he was four at the time. She stood directly behind the goal in FA4 and I was over in FA5, and when I had been at the seat, I'd been sat down because of my ankle, so she could never have seen me at all. I thought 'God, this is crazy.' Everything she says doesn't match. Hers and the arresting officer's statements had this incident happening in the second half, but I was leaving the ground [arrested] at the start of the second half. At the time when they recorded that I had done it, I was in Elland Road cells.

"I can't tell you the elation I felt [at the verdict]. It was huge. It's a lot to carry around. For quite some time, I was embarrassed about it, I wasn't telling anybody. But one day, I just got really sick of it and thought I've done nothing wrong, I'm going to blurt it out. And I did, and I got some lovely support on Twitter. I don't want my name to be associated with that kind of behavior at all. I won't have it around me."

But having cleared her name, Sarah says it has not been a case of life going back to normal. James won't return to Elland Road. Jack has abandoned his dream of working in football media and statistics, no longer wanting anything to do with the sport.

"Ultimately I was just taking my kids to something that I loved," she said. "In 30-some years of going to that ground, I've never been drunk. I never had to be spoken to by a steward or a police officer. It was very much a family thing, and it's been completely taken away. My youngest son was immediately frightened by [the police], and he was shouting at them, 'where's my mum?' And he has completely lost trust. His association with a police officer is not somebody that you could go to when you need to go to someone for safety or for help."

Sarah has asked the club for an immediate refund on the season tickets she paid for but was unable to use last season. She's critical of how they handled the incident. Days after the incident she received an Elland Road suspension email, seen by the YEP, that stated 'had you come to the match to enjoy the atmosphere and the matchday experience you would not be in this position.'

She said: "I emailed back, 'how dare you?' I do that every game. They found me guilty and I hadn't even been to court and they wouldn't do anything like check the CCTV or speak with any other staff members. And you think you can send me this kind of letter saying it's all my fault?"

She has now made a complaint to the police professional standards, asking why she was been put in a cell and not allowed to wait with her children. The main thrust of her complaint was that the boys were left in the ground by themselves, during a game that could have seen Leeds United promoted and potentially prompted a full-time pitch invasion.

"If you arrest a parent on a motorway for drunk driving, do you take the parent away and leave the kids in the back of the car for somebody else to come and pick up?" she said. "I'm quite sure the answer is no, you would take the kids to a safe place to be collected. The same applies with the ground. It just seems to be unfathomable that you would leave two children, specifically after you've been told.  And I was told 'we'll sort it, they'll be fine,' and they didn't do.

"In my opinion, my children should not have been left in there by the police or stewards. If my son wasn't allowed to take my youngest, as per the club rules because he was under 17, then why was he allowed to be left in the stadium for the full 45 minutes? They were both completely bewildered. James was extremely distressed.

"It was cruel. It could have been fixed and sorted with just a couple of simple questions. And nobody was interested. The club seemed to just want to wash their hands of it, ride it out, wait for the outcome, deal with it if they had to then."

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said: "A complaint has been received by West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate and is currently being progressed."

A Leeds United spokesperson said: "Racism has no room in football or wider society and Leeds United always take the strongest possible action against any allegation of this nature. In the instance of an arrest being made at Elland Road, banning orders will remain in place until such time a police investigation has concluded."