“We’re terrified. Have the police learnt nothing after Sarah Everard?” — how a spate of sex attacks in Hackney has re-ignited women’s safety fears

Homerton artist Nicole Chui, 26, says the attacks have left her afraid to leave the house

(Picture: Louis Bever)

Brooke Coe, 35, used to go to Hackney Marshes every day. She lives nearby and has always loved the feel of the rural oasis in the middle of the city: the canal towpath for walking; the woodland for some headspace; the marshes for running and socialising in the summer.

But since reports of at least 22 assaults on lone women in the area since February — most of them in broad daylight — the advertising executive feels nervous to even leave her house. She’s changed her walking route, chose not to sunbathe there in the heatwave last week, and bought a police-style pepper spray which she now carries at all times.