Sarah Everard was kidnapped and murdered a year ago today
Don't Miss
Most Read
Trending on GB News
One year ago today, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was walking home from a friend's house, passing through Clapham Common park in South London just after 9pm. She never made it home that night.
Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in a crime that shocked the nation.
A vigil is expected to be held on Clapham Common this evening.
This morning, the Everard family have released a statement through the Metropolitan Police: “It is a year since Sarah died and we remember her today, as every day, with all our love. Our lives have changed forever and we live with the sadness of our loss. Sarah was wonderful and we miss her all the time."
"Over the past year we have been overwhelmed with the kindness shown to us, not just by family and friends, but by the wider public. Sadly, Sarah is not the only woman to have lost her life recently in violent circumstances and we would like to extend our deepest sympathy to other families who are also grieving.”
This was a case that shocked the country and indeed, the world. If you cast your time back to March last year, we were still in lockdown. This young woman disappeared into thin air whilst walking home.
Sarah had been visiting a friend near Clapham Common. This is a part of London nicknamed ‘little Surrey’ because it has a young, professional population. It’s very leafy, very residential. It feels very safe.
A point which resonated universally was that Sarah did everything that women are told to do when walking at night to keep ourselves safe. She wore brightly coloured clothing, she was in trainers and layers. She was on a main road. She called her boyfriend on her way home. It still wasn’t enough to keep her safe. Sarah’s kidnapping took less than five minutes.
We know now that she was stopped by police officer Wayne Couzens at about 9.34pm, detained in his car by 9.37pm and minutes later he was driving her to Kent where he raped and murdered her.
The next day Sarah was reported missing and a huge search operation began in the streets around Clapham Common. People had candles in their windows. And local people were asked to check their doorbell camera footage and their dashcam footage. This really helped the police investigation.
At 21:28, Sarah was seen on doorbell camera footage on Poynders Road and four minutes later on the dashcam of a passing police car. Then, finally, the CCTV of a passing London bus captured Wayne Couzens talking to Sarah Everard.
On the 9th of March Wayne Couzens was arrested and the day after, Sarah Everard's remains were discovered. He pleaded guilty and in September he was sentenced to a whole life sentence for Sarah’s abduction, rape and murder and he will die in prison.
Whole life terms are rare, but in exceptional cases a judge may make that order. The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were among those given whole life terms.
It was the first time the sentence had been imposed for a single murder of an adult not committed in the course of a terror attack. In court we heard how Ms Everard was detained by deception; Couzens appearing to use his warrant card, handcuffs and other police issue equipment to effect a false arrest.
After Couzens raped and murdered Ms Everard, he went to great lengths over the next few days to conceal what he had done.This included disposing of Ms Everard’s phone, which was recovered in Kent. Ms Everard’s body was found in a builders bag.
We also know now that Couzens had remained an officer despite twice being accused of indecent exposure – once in 2015, where colleagues nicknamed him “the rapist”, and again in the days before the murder.
But unfortunately this isn’t yet over for Sarah Everard’s family. In October, the Court of Appeal confirmed that Couzens is planning to appeal his sentence. The hearing is likely to be in early May but a date has not been fixed and may change.
The vigil on Clapham Common in March last year, near where Sarah had disappeared, led to a controversial police response, accusations of the police being heavy-handed, and four people were arrested at this peaceful protest for breaches of COVID-19 regulations.
It was known at the time that a serving Met Police officer had been arrested in connection with Sarah’s disappearance and death.Then there was a report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Which found that misogyny, discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment was uncovered throughout the ranks of the Metropolitan Police.
We are still feeling the shockwaves of this case now. Just last month Cressida Dick resigned as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. She was criticised at the time for suggesting that a woman like Sarah, being arrested by a police officer acting alone, could have hailed down a London bus.
She was accused of being out of touch. It has since emerged that Wayne Couzens was the 27th Metropolitan Police officer to be convicted of a sex crime in just five years. It has also been revealed Wayne Couzens was part of a WhatsApp group of police officers where sexist, racist and homophobic messages were shared.
Obviously, Cressida Dick wasn’t responsible for the horrific crimes that Wayne Couzens undertook, but he was a serving Met police officer and this did happen on her watch. Just last week Priti Patel told the police that tackling violence against women and girls should be given as much a priority as fighting terrorism, child sexual abuse and serious and organised crime.
The Government will officially respond to the findings of the report and suggest what police forces can do better.
Ultimately, Sarah Everard’s murder sparked a wider conversation around the safety of women on the streets and sexism at large. There was so much tangible upset and rage that still, in the 21st century, women aren’t able to talk home at night and guarantee they will get to their destination safely.
Sarah was killed by a person who was meant to be there to protect her. And despite police and government promises, many women feel like they still don’t feel safe today.
