‘One year on from Sarah Everard’s death – we’re still scared’
South London resident Lucy Clarke-billings reflects on the impact the rape and murder had on women everywhere – and what still needs to change
Iwas sipping a takeaway coffee in the window of my new flat when a news alert popped up on my phone. Police were “increasingly concerned” for a missing woman’s welfare and were working “round the clock” to find her. The report said her phone signal was last picked up less than two miles from where I was sitting.
It was March 6 2021, and I’d just picked up the keys to my new home in south London when the Metropolitan Police raised the alarm over Sarah Everard’s disappearance.
Three days earlier, at around 9.30pm, the 33-year-old daughter, sister, friend and girlfriend, was walking home from a friend’s house when police officer Wayne Couzens arrested her under the pretence she’d breached Covid rules. He drove her out of the city to Hoad’s Wood near Ashford, Kent, where he raped and strangled her, before burning her body and disposing of her remains in a nearby pond.
After the Met’s missing persons plea hit newsstands, posters began appearing. Every time I left my flat to explore the parks and commons on my new doorstep, Sarah’s face smiled back at me.
When her remains were discovered on March 10, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declared London’s streets “unsafe for women”. That evening, I downloaded the tracking app Find My and shared my location with my parents. A friend told me she’d Amazon Prime’d a rape alarm.
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – which considers what people need and are motivated by – safety comes first, after air, food and water. When your safety is threatened your sympathetic nervous system is activated, triggering an acute stress response preparing the body to fight or flee. Your heart rate quickens, your body tenses or your face feels flushed. Every gender knows this feeling.
A RIGHT TO BE SCARED
But Sarah’s disappearance stirred up the worst fear shared among women specifically, telling me: You are right to be scared. For women, this terror is a low hum beneath the music of our day-to-day lives.
It’s not always aggravating but it’s tiring – sometimes distracting – and can’t be turned off. Studies consistently find women fear crime far more than men and are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety disorders.
Sarah’s death turned the volume up on this fear, prompting widespread debate about women’s safety, violence against women and the role of the police. After Couzens’ sentencing, the Met said people should consider “shouting out to a passerby, running into a house, knocking on a door or waving down a bus” if they felt uncomfortable when stopped by a lone police officer. “How was Sarah supposed to wave down a bus in handcuffs?” I thought. The advice was later deleted from the Met website.
Then North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott said women need to learn more about the law and be “streetwise” about when they can and can’t be arrested. He later resigned and apologised for his comments.
At every turn in the wake of Sarah’s death, the onus was put on women to protect themselves better and become “attack-resistant”.
TIME FOR CHANGE
It transpired Couzens had been accused of indecent exposure several times from as early as 2015 and was nicknamed “the Rapist” by his colleagues. And yet he was still a serving police officer at the time of Sarah’s disappearance and murder.
Three of Couzens’ colleagues are due to appear in court next month, charged with sharing “grossly offensive” racist and misogynistic messages with him on Whatsapp before the killing.
It’s no surprise a Yougov poll released at the end of last year found 76% of women believe police culture has to change and
‘The onus was put on women to protect themselves better’
47% of women have decreased trust in the police.
Environment Secretary George Eustice described Sarah’s killer as “one bad apple” but the rot goes so much deeper.
Following Couzens’ trial, the Home Secretary commissioned a report into how efficiently forces respond to violence against women and girls. It found improvements have been made over the past decade but there were “grave concerns” over the number of cases closed without charge. It recommended the whole system take a “fundamentally new approach”.
The Home Office announced a new national policing lead on violence against women and girls, and a £5 million “Safety of Women at Night” Fund. As part of the strategy, public street harassment in England and Wales could be criminalised.
But my friends and I feel the same as we did last year, and the year before that. Extra street lamps, more police officers on the streets and safety apps won’t stop certain individuals from hating women so much that they want to rape and murder them.
Those in power need to look at male violence and why it happens, not women’s safety and how we should protect ourselves. Until then, “Let me know when you’re home x.” LUCY CLARKE-BILLINGS
Streets should be safe for women regardless of what we wear, where we walk or what time of day or night it is. It’s wrong that the response to violence against women requires women to behave differently so #Reclaimthesestreets speaks up on street harassment of women and girls, educates boys and men to take responsibility for the problem of violence against women and girls, and works to challenge misogyny in the way our laws are written and enforced. Visit reclaimthesestreets.com