Ayesha Hazarika
(Picture: Daniel Hambury)Tomorrow, it will be a year since Sarah Everard went missing. She was abducted as she walked home after visiting a friend in Clapham on the evening of March 3, 2021. She did everything we women are told to do when walking at night. She was on a main road. She called her boyfriend on her way home. Her kidnapping took less than five minutes. She was stopped by police officer Wayne Couzens at about 9.34pm, detained in his car by 9.37pm and minutes later they were on their way to Kent where he raped and murdered her.
Our thoughts go out to Everard’s family and friends at this terrible milestone. This is also an important moment for all of us to reflect on where we are one year on. Her murder prompted a howl of pain and rage from women across the country. It catalysed a powerful national conversation about what many feel is an epidemic of sexualised violence against women and girls. The Government promised that it would make our streets safer, but many women don’t feel that way.
