It was an unthinkably evil crime that sparked a crucial conversation about a challenge facing a generation.
Sarah Everard's chilling kidnap and murder sent waves of fear among women up and down the country.
That a young woman could be killed by a complete stranger as she innocently made her way home made a terrifying nightmare scenario a shocking reality.
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And that shock turned to disbelief and then anger when it emerged the man responsible was Wayne Couzens, a serving Metropolitan Police officer who abused his position in the worst possible way.
In the wake of Sarah's murder, protests and vigils were held highlighting the horrifying scale of the problem of violence against woman and girls in our country.
And a series of revelations about misogyny within the Met were made in the run up to Commissioner Cressida Dick's resignation last month.
Today, on the first anniversary of Sarah's murder, Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner has told how the "abhorrent" crime had been a "turning point" for the country which exposed the need for real change in society and attitudes.
And Kim McGuinness has explained how she is determined to make sure women in the North East are not only kept safe, but also "feel" safe and trust the police officers there to protect them.
She said: "I think Sarah's murder will go down in history as a turning point. I still feel incredibly sad thinking about it, and very very angry.
"It doesn't feel like a year ago, but in that year so much has happened."
Metropolitan Police PC Wayne Couzens was handed a whole life order for the murder of 33-year-old Durham University graduate, Sarah Everard, in London.
The Old Bailey heard how Couzens used his position as a police officer to carry out his heinous crime after targeting Sarah as she walked home from a friends house in London, on March 3 last year.
The firearms officer used his Met warrant card and handcuffs to falsely arrest Sarah.
Couzens, 48, from Deal in Kent, then drove his victim to a secluded rural area near Dover in Kent, where he parked up and raped her, before strangling Sarah with his police issue belt.
In October, Kim announced plans to spend £800,000 to make parks and public transport in the Tyne and Wear and Northumberland safer for women.
The measures include new CCTV, more street lighting and safety workers on public transport.
The PCC also teamed-up with Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland to launch a campaign entitled "Fun without Fear" to raise awareness of the rights of women across and to promote behaviour change in men, encourage reporting and help victims to help and support.
While it remains incredibly rare for women to be murdered by men they do not know, in the way Sarah was, Kim believes many women are regularly subjected to harassment on our streets.
And she says it's essential that everyone feels safe while walking around Tyneside.
"I think it's important to say that if we improve the environment so women feel safer everyone will feel safer," she said. "It's always positive to make people feel safe in public places, and everyone has the right to feel safe in public places.
"This is a very very safe region, we are very unlikely to come to harm on the street. But that doesn't meant people aren't scared.
"What people are scared of is everything from street level harassment, to somebody following you or stalking you.
"I do feel on a whole it's safe, but our job is to make it feel that way.
"Women need to be able to go out without that fear, and without that threat hanging over them."
Sarah's murder not only put men's attitudes to women in the spotlight, it also exposed misogyny in policing.
But Kim believes that while these attitudes exist across society, they are not accepted within Northumbria Police.
"I think it's really clear that what happens in the Met affects all of UK policing, but the events surrounding Sarah Everard's murder and the fact that it was a serving police officer is something that has really affected police officers. It's the worst insult to them," she said.
"Some of the most angry reactions I have seen have been from police officers who know their standing has been damaged by it.
" Northumbria Police with my encouragement and the chief officer's team have approached everything linked to women's safety with that in mind.
"I think officers have always had to be mindful of trust. They have to serve the public in the best way for the public, and in order to do that they need to be listening to people's concerns, not just dismissing them. And Northumbria Police has done that.
"Misogyny in society is something we have to act on. Until that's gone away it won't go away in institutions. But it's very very clear from me, and from the police that it is absolutely not acceptable. If you are found out you will be dealt with. But from the track record Northumbria has for routing out that kind of thing.
And Kim hope that recruiting more women officers will help build trust.
She added: "We are recruiting now and within that we need to be very mindful that we have got to improve the diversity of policing. We need more women officers."
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