London – Kidnapped, raped and killed by someone supposed to protect: The murder of Londoner Sarah Everard by a police officer sent shockwaves through Britain. “She was just walking home” became the campaign slogan with thousands of women expressing their anger and outrage. Despite the corona lockdown, the British took to the streets in large numbers in March 2021, even Duchess Kate showed up. It’s all been a year now – what has happened since then?
The cruel fate of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who was allegedly stopped by a police officer on her way home in March last year for possibly breaking the Corona rules and then disappeared, was the straw that broke the camel’s back for many. But even after the public outcry and the political promise to give high priority to the fight against violence against women, the series of murders continued.
Everard, Nessa… And these are just the most prominent cases
In September, the case of Sabina Nessa, an elementary school teacher, caused a stir when she was struck on her way to a park, dragged into the undergrowth and murdered. The murder of two sisters by a satanist also caused an outcry – and these are just the most prominent cases.
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Crime scene Cator Park in the Kidbrooke district: This is where the body of elementary school teacher Sabina Nessa was found.
According to the evaluations of the activist Karen Ingala Smith’s “Counting Dead Women” project, at least 140 women were killed in 2021, in which a man is the suspect. That is more than in previous years. Sexual assaults recorded in England and Wales up to the end of September 2021 were up 12 per cent year-on-year, according to the National Statistics Office. They even reached a new high of 170,973 cases within twelve months. More than a third of the cases were rapes. However, the statisticians think it is possible that more cases have been reported since the topic has received so much attention.
“The data paints a bleak picture, but we know that violence against women and girls is not inevitable,” Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said on the anniversary of the Everard murder. “With courage and the appropriate leadership of those in power, we could end it.” However, this requires education in schools and effective laws to protect women from abuse on the Internet, for example. “For a moment last year it felt like the government was listening and finally doing something effective.” But then only superficial measures followed, such as more money for surveillance cameras or a higher police presence in some places. Labor politician Yvette Cooper also criticized the government’s plans for not going far enough.
Home Secretary Priti Patel, who recently launched an official education campaign entitled “Enough”, was energetic. “For far too long, the responsibility for their own safety has been shifted onto the shoulders of women and girls,” she said. Your government wants to make violence against women a central pillar of policing, on a par with terrorism and child abuse. How this is reflected in everyday life is likely to depend on the new leadership of the influential London police force. No successor has yet been announced for the ousted and much-criticized Scotland Yard boss Cressida Dick.
Reports of sexist behavior by police officers
The role of the British police and their treatment of women were not only brought into focus by the shocking murder by an officer. At the vigil for Sarah Everard, police officers took harsh action against participating women. There have also been repeated reports of sexist and misogynist behavior by police officers in other police departments.
Many women who have experienced violence also feel abandoned by the judiciary. An official investigative report recently accused the legal system of serious failings. “Rape victims are consistently and systematically abandoned by the criminal justice system,” the regulators said. On average, it takes nearly two years (706 days) from the time a case is reported to the police before a court case begins. The supervisor suggests establishing courts dedicated exclusively to rape cases, at least temporarily, to work through the backlog.
dpa / PA Wire
Flowers for the killed Sarah Everard: The case triggered great sympathy in Great Britain.
“It is unacceptable that so many women and girls continue to fear and experience violence and abuse and the attackers must be held accountable,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter, expressing his condolences to Sarah Everard’s family.
Even in south London, where Sarah Everard disappeared a year ago, the shock of the crime is still deep. Most recently, a group of women marched from Clapham to Brixton to draw renewed attention to violence against women and girls. “We need a dramatic societal change in how we talk about male violence and we need to stop dismissing it as a woman’s issue,” said one of the organizers, Freya Papworth. It may be a while before this change can be seen in the statistics.