When Patsy Stevenson was arrested at a vigil for Sarah Everard in 2021, the pictures of her being pinned to the ground by police officers sparked national outrage. “It’s weird. Because a lot of people speak about me as if I’m an image, and I’m a real person,” she told us at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards, where she won Campaigner of the Year on Tuesday evening. “I’ve never felt so honoured in my life,” she said.
Two and a half years and one lawsuit later, Stevenson has received a payout and an apology from the Metropolitan Police. She said the process has been “exhausting,” but it will not stop her campaigning.
She described the new Public Order Act, which gives police additional powers to contain protests, as “horrendous”. “There’s a stigma around protestors, when actually all they’re trying to do is help the world”. What of direct action groups like Just Stop Oil? “I think maybe we need to stop looking at trying to stop Just Stop Oil, and actually stop the oil, because then they wouldn’t be protesting,” she said.
Sarah Everard's murder by a serving Met officer in March 2021 led to a reckoning on how the force is managed. But Stevenson told us she doubts whether true progress has been made and still feels uncomfortable when she sees police. “I don’t like them and I don’t trust them," she said. "I don’t want to be around them, until they get to a point where they prove that we can trust them.”
A night to remember
Fellow winners included artist Marina Abramovic. She’s practically the face of London’s art scene at the moment, with shows on at the Royal Academy, the Southbank, and the English National Opera. “It’s too much!” she said. “Tomorrow I have to go play opera four times”. She puts the origins of her work ethic down to her “Communist parents”. “I wake up at 7 in the morning and I work until I go to bed. I’ve done this for 55 years.”
AbramoviÄ wore an elaborate Vivienne Westwood red silk ensemble, complete with a cape and a train. “It’s called ‘Drunken Pyjamas’,” she told us. But you wouldn’t catch her getting drunk in her pyjamas. She’s never touched alcohol and instead unwinds with “chamomile tea, long baths and massages”. Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall presented AbramoviÄ with her award.
We also caught up with Lioness Alessia Russo, who said she’s been hooked on the Beckham doc. “Football can be cruel sometimes, and it’s a part of the game that not many people see,” she said, referencing Beckham’s fall from grace after his red card for ‘the kick’. Director Emerald Fennell was candid about where she gets the inspiration for her characters: “I just look in the mirror.” Her new film, Saltburn, centres on a family of rather ghastly aristocrats.
Singer Janelle Monáe arrived fashionably late, in a dress by British designer Harris Reed complete with pearl nipples. Monáe’s pre-awards ritual? “Two naps. I was on a red-eye flight!” Also there were Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Geri Halliwell.
