Sarah Everard (Family Handout/CPS/PA)
(Picture: PA Media)For the past 12 months, the same two refrains have been repeated among women where I live in south London, a mile and a half from where Sarah Everard was kidnapped. The first is a horrified whisper: when did she realise that she was in danger? The second, a familiar fear: it could have been any one of us.
Sarah’s murder by a serving Metropolitan Police officer shocked the world. But for women in London it has left an indelible mark. “I run past the Clapham Common bandstand most mornings,” says Joanna Cotton, 37, “and I always say a little prayer for her.” Women feel little has changed since Boris Johnson promised last March to “do everything we can” to improve women’s safety. Or as Jamie Klingler of Reclaim These Streets puts it: “The watershed moment? They did nothing.”
