'Always with keys out': hundreds of women tell of fear of walking alone
Politicians, comedians, TV stars and journalists are among hundreds of women who have shared their experiences of feeling a sense of fear when walking home alone, as they expressed their sadness over the news a police officer has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sarah Everard.
The 33-year-old marketing executive vanished while she was walking home in south London at about 9pm on 3 March, and investigators searching for her have found human remains.
Women also recalled their own fears about going home alone. Kate McCann, a political correspondent at Sky News, tweeted to detail what goes through her mind when she makes the journey back home on her own. “Keys gripped between fingers we map the corner shops we could duck into en route. Swap shoes for trainers in case we need to run. Keep our music low or turned off,” she said.
The sentiment struck a chord among others, with the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, saying she identified with McCann’s message.
Julie Etchingham, a newsreader with ITV News, echoed this and said:
Police have scrambled to try to reassure the public after PC Wayne Couzens, 48, was arrested on Tuesday at his home in Deal, Kent, on suspicion of
Everard’s murder.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, said Everard’s disappearance was “every family’s worst nightmare”, and the arrest of a serving officer had sent “shock waves and anger through the public and through the Met”.
Other politicians also shared their experiences. The Tory MP Claire Coutinho said: “Walking late at night recently, I remember thinking I’d better look over my left shoulder as much as
I’m looking over my right so I don’t strain my neck. And always with keys out.”
The Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones wrote: “We are told: ‘Don’t get too drunk you will be too vulnerable.’ ‘Put your keys between your fingers when walking alone.’ When will we start telling boys & men not to attack women?”
Labour’s Diane Abbott also shared her own experiences, saying she often crosses the street if a man is walking behind her.
The Labour MP for Coventry North West, Taiwo Owatemi, said women were taught that it was not safe to walk alone “before we have even sat our GCSEs”. She added: “Every woman and girl deserves to live without fear of violence.”
Anna Yearley, the joint executive director of the legal action NGO Reprieve, tweeted: “For all those women who text their mates to let them know they got home safe, who wear flat shoes at night so they can run if they need, who have keys in their hands ready to use, it’s not your fault. It never is. So many of us have stories of being assaulted. It’s never our fault.”
The comedian and former The Great British Bake Off presenter Sue Perkins paid tribute to Everard in a tweet that read: “I feel so unbearably sad today. My heart goes out to the family, partner and friends of Sarah Everard.”
The Love Island star Amber Davies also paid her respects, saying the news was “absolutely terrifying”. She said: “My heart hurts for Sarah Everard and her family. How can a young woman innocently walking home turn into this? Just sickening!”
The singer Nadine Shah said she had been followed home “too many times to count”.
“Once I had to hide in a bush for over an hour until two men gave up looking for me. I could hear them plotting explicitly what they were going to do to me and laughing. The solution starts with respecting women,” she wrote.
Women on social media are organising a vigil for Everard in Clapham Common over the weekend using the hashtag ReclaimTheseStreets. A poster circulating online says the event is a “vigil for all women threatened on our streets”.