Sarah Everard: We cannot afford to forget her

On March 12, 2021, the front page of The Scotsman listed the names of 118 women killed in the UK the previous year, as read out by Jess Phillips in the House of Commons International Women’s Day debate.

The previous day, most other front pages had borne the face of Sarah Everard, after serving police officer Wayne Couzens was arrested on suspicion of her kidnap and murder.

Since her death, another 80 women have been killed by a man in the UK by the same count – a count that does not include transgender women, and is suspected by its compiler to be an underestimate.

It appears despite six months having passed, despite much hand-wringing and media attention and solemn comments, that more must be done, that men need to act, that women have had enough, that nothing has changed.

Sarah Everard was on her way home when she was abducted.

Six months is not a very long time, but I don’t hold out much hope that time is the only thing limiting meaningful change.

Our hearts all bleed for Ms Everard. We’re all quick to hashtag our support and condemnation of the sickening brutality of what happened to her, and yet there is little joining of the dots between the heinous crimes of a monster and the culture in which he existed.

Couzens was nicknamed “the rapist”, was part of a group chat allegedly containing discriminatory and misogynistic content. Neither of which, apparently, were red flags.

Many have said warning signs over Couzens should have been picked up, but a culture where similar “banter” is not unusual may explain, but not excuse, why they were not.

Some big things have to change in the wake of Sarah Everard’s death – funding for victims of violence and reform within the Metropolitan Police at the very least – but there is also a sore need for a culture change, the realisation that idle jokes and banter and abuse and threats aimed at women should be taken seriously.

Among too many murdered women, Ms Everard has stood out and captured the UK’s collective imagination. She was white, gainfully employed and not involved in an abusive relationship, and her death is easy to be horrified by.

No lasting legacy could be worth the sickening atrocity of her murder, but it nothing changes after this then it never will.

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