Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, disappeared on the evening of March 3 while walking home from a friend's flat in a popular neighbourhood south of London. Everard's body was discovered in nearby woods on Wednesday.
Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, was charged with murdering Everard. Scores of people have thronged the streets of London to mourn the victim, bringing the conversation about women's safety in the UK to the forefront. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his partner, and also the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton joined in to remember Sarah.
Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick gave a statement that it is "incredibly rare" for women to be abducted from the streets of London. A report by The Guardian presented statistics to show that that was not the case.
Stranger killing accounts for 8 per cent of all killings of women by men in the UK. According to a report by Femicide Census, between 2009 and 2018, 119 women were killed by men they did not know. It also stated that a woman is more likely to be killed by someone she knows.
Metropolitan Police under fire
The Met is reportedly going to be investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct for its handling of the Everard case.
This is not the first time the Met has seen backlash. In 2018, two women raped by cab driver John Worboys successfully sued the Met over its failure to investigate previous rape allegations against him. The women argued in court that if earlier allegations had been taken seriously by the police, the incident would not have happened with them. It was estimated that the man had raped more than 100 women.
The Centre for Women’s Justice, registered days before Couzens was arrested, showed 666 reports over three years of domestic abuse cases perpetrated by police officers, community support officers, and other staff from 30 of England and Wales’s 43 police forces, according to the report.
Now, Police in London is receiving widespread criticism after handcuffing mourners at a vigil for Sarah. Officers reportedly scuffled with some members of the hundreds-strong crowd that gathered despite coronavirus restrictions for a candlelit tribute close to the spot where the 33-year-old marketing executive disappeared on March 3.
(With agency inputs)