Mobile phone torches glowed across Clapham Common as dozens of people gathered to mark five years since the murder of Sarah Everard.
Flowers were laid and candles lit as attendees stood in silence on Tuesday evening to honour not only Ms Everard, whose life was so cruelly taken, but all women and girls who have lost their lives to male violence.
Ms Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, was walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham at around 9.30pm on March 3, 2021, when she was abducted, raped and murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.
Couzens was subsequently convicted and given a whole-life sentence.
The case sent shockwaves across the country, sparking widespread anger and fear, and shattered trust in the Metropolitan Police. Couzens had used his status and power as a police officer to trick Ms Everard into thinking he could arrest her for breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules.
Ms Everard’s death became a watershed moment in the national conversation about violence against women and girls. Women came out onto the streets to protest the lack of safety for women and girls and ineffective police response to violence against women.
The Home Secretary subsequently announced a national inquiry to investigate the systematic failures that allowed the perpetrator, Couzens, to remain in policing.
In the years since, a range of measures have been introduced in London and nationally aimed at improving women’s safety, including an increased use of protective orders such as Stalking Protection Orders, Sexual Risk Orders and tools such as SafeSpace to allow people to report unsafe locations.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also launched a strategy on violence against women and girls, including initiatives such as the Women’s Night Safety Charter, expanded CCTV coverage and improved street lighting.
But those gathered at Tuesday’s vigil said the changes have not gone far enough.
Organisers said many women still do not feel safe walking alone, particularly at night, while others spoke of a deep and lasting mistrust of the police following Ms Everard’s murder.
Klara Fine, 29, who works at the event's organiser Best of Clapham said: "If a lone policeman came up to me and asked me to get into his car I would tell him to 'f' off, to be honest.
"Unfortunately, that's the sad reality, and I think that violence against women in general starts from school, school boys.
"Much more needs to be done on a national level.
"At the moment it just feels like it's smaller communities who are providing safe spaces and supporting each other and charities, and it's just really not good enough."
Around 100 people gathered at the vigil to lay flowers, observe a minute of silence and remember Ms Everard together.
After thanking people for attending, Ms Fine told the crowd: "We're here this evening to remember her because she deserves to be remembered.
"We remember her not as a headline, not as a case, not as a moment in the news cycle, but as Sarah, a daughter, a friend, a woman with plans, laughter and the future ahead of her, cruelly taken away."
Joanna Reynolds, who was ward councillor for Clapham Common at the time of Ms Everard's murder five years ago, said: "We do need to reclaim the streets, reclaim the night.
"It's important that, for all of us and for our children and for any girls that are growing, that we make sure that it's not just about us women, it's about the men here.
"We need to make sure that they and the boys growing up understand how they should treat the women in their lives and the women that they see on the streets."
She added: "I cannot imagine what it was like for Sarah, at the moment she got into that car.
"Or for her family, and particularly her parents, how they must have felt during that time."
Organised by the local news page Best of Clapham, the vigil also raised funds for London-based charity Solace Women's Aid, which supports women and children affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Asked why she attended the vigil, Izzy Airey, 24, said: "I live locally and I come to the park often.
"I would never walk here alone at night, or like if I was to go home through here in dark I'd be like on a bike and like zooming through.
"So holding the vigil here, with a lot of women, and coming together basically to commemorate her, is actually super powerful."
The student, from Brixton, south London, added: "Parks at night are obviously super dangerous, but the daily reality for women is that they have to just be careful."
Speaking of the police, she said: "You'd hope that they would listen to you, but I guess in reality I don't really know.
"I feel like I would probably contact my family before I call the police probably, because I think it's intimidating."
Ms Everard's mother Susan said her daughter had "added to the beauty of the world" in a tribute piece for British Vogue.
"I miss the goodness of Sarah: she was thoughtful and dependable and highly principled," she wrote.
Earlier on Tuesday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley hailed the "extraordinary dignity in the face of unbearable grief" shown by the family of Ms Everard.
In a statement released by the force, Sir Mark said: "Sarah Everard should still be here.
"Five years have passed since her senseless and devastating murder.
"What happened to her was a profound betrayal: of her, of her family and loved ones, and of every person who places their trust in policing."
He added the fact that she was killed by a serving police officer, Wayne Couzens, was "as devastating today as it was in 2021".
"It was an unthinkable abuse of power and a total violation of the values that the Met, and policing stands for.
"On the day I heard what he had done, I felt devastated for the immense harm his actions caused to the trust that underpins our relationship with the communities we serve.
"What he did shook policing to its core. It made decent, dedicated officers and staff across the country furious that one of our own could commit such a monstrous crime.
"We will always be deeply sorry: for the unimaginable harm done to Sarah, for the trauma endured by her family - who have shown extraordinary dignity in the face of unbearable grief - and for the profound damage inflicted on the trust Londoners should be able to place in their police service."
Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life prison term at the end of his trial at the Old Bailey in September 2021, meaning he will never be released from jail.
