Six months on from Sarah Everard’s murder, and a vigil that feels uncomfortably similar to last night’s for Sabina Nessa, has anything been done to make women safer? thetimes.co.uk/article/six-mo…
On Friday night several hundred people gathered at a park in Kidbrooke, southeast London. They stood in silence, some holding candles and placing small bunches of flowers, to pay their respects to another young woman who had been killed. 
The atmosphere at the park was one of frustration.
Erin Cooney, 18, and her friend Molly Columb, 20, said it could have been “any one of us”. “We came here today to show that we are not afraid and that young women should not have to live in fear.”
Erin Cooney, 18, and her friend Molly Columb, 20, said it could have been “any one of us”. “We came here today to show that we are not afraid and that young women should not have to live in fear.”
The mood is febrile; 41% of young women feel more worried about their safety since the death of Everard, a poll of Sunday Times readers has found; 45% are less likely to walk alone after dark.
It’s not just their own safety they need to worry about.
So, is anything being done to make women safer?
In the days after Sabina’s body was found last Saturday, police handed out information leaflets suggesting that women walked “assertively” and stuck to well-lit areas. The local council handed out rape alarms.
In the days after Sabina’s body was found last Saturday, police handed out information leaflets suggesting that women walked “assertively” and stuck to well-lit areas. The local council handed out rape alarms.
“If you push the onus of women’s safety back on the women that are being attacked, then you take less responsibility for it,” says Jamie Klinger, co-founder of @ReclaimTS. “We don’t think any progress has been made at all.”
But according to Andrea Simon, there has been some progress in the past six months.
A recent report found “an epidemic of violent and abusive offending against women in England and Wales”.
There were an estimated 1.6 million female victims of domestic abuse in England and Wales in the year ending March 2020 and 618,000 female victims of sexual assault.
There were an estimated 1.6 million female victims of domestic abuse in England and Wales in the year ending March 2020 and 618,000 female victims of sexual assault.
.@ZoeBillingham, inspector of constabulary and lead author of the report, says the mood has changed.
But some say much of the government’s response has consisted of empty gestures. The creation of a “czar” for women’s safety is an example, Simon says.
Ostensibly this puts violence against women on a par with terrorism, but while that post has funding, the new one does not.
Ostensibly this puts violence against women on a par with terrorism, but while that post has funding, the new one does not.
Read more: thetimes.co.uk/article/six-mo…
“I think the police poured gasoline on the situation and lit the match.”
A breakdown of the Sarah Everard vigil, six months on. Watch the full video here: thetimes.co.uk/article/six-mo…
A breakdown of the Sarah Everard vigil, six months on. Watch the full video here: thetimes.co.uk/article/six-mo…
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