Anyone follow the coverage of the Sarah Everard case today and want to vent?

[HangingOver]

I'm home alone today and except for whatsapping my friends have nothing to do with this incandescent rage and hopeless sadness.

Anyone else need to talk?

The thought of how blind terrified she must have been keeps hitting me like a tonne of bricks. What a truly awful thing to happen to someone. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. How fucking dare he.

@Pikamoo

We need massive changes to try and go a little way to redressing the imbalance between men and women. A start can be women are not arrested for non-violent offences. If a woman commits an offence she is given a summons to present herself to a police station within an appropriate time period.

I hadn't read that about his nickname among "the lads". Disgusting. I hope they are all held to account. I'm sure they won't be. I hope they at least feel responsible.

Sadly this would leave some people in danger, being a woman shouldn’t enable you to drive off drunk, carry on damaging property etc. It also wouldn’t go anywhere to solving the issue of police brutality.

It took 0.7 seconds for the rumours to start that she was in a press-existing sexual relationship with him, and that it was BDSM gone wrong. Unbelievable. Frankly, I thought the chances of an attractive, well-educated 20-something being drawn to an ex/panel beater from Dover who looks like a boiled penis, very very slim. But there you go. Some women do like a bit of rough I suppose. Clearly the psychological testing for the police remains woefully inadequate.

700 reports of violence against women between April 2015-2018 against police officers. It isn't just Wayne couzens, this is a full blown fucking epidemic.

I hope he gets life, and I mean the whole of his miserable life. Nothing can bring Sarah back, but I hope that a whole life sentence would help her family by knowing that justice has been done.
RIP Sarah.

just something that's not about women being murdered.

I feel like screaming this at the TV most evenings. “Dramas” about women being killed by men seem to be on every other fucking channel. Or “murder file” shows or Netflix documentaries. They’re normalising the murder of women as entertainment.

No offduty policeman or woman should have access to uniform, weapons, warrant cards, or handcuffs - they needed to be handed over at their police station. This would require major reform though and I’m not sure that the force that still hasn’t improved after the stephan lawrance murder is capable of it.

As everyone else has said, absolutely horrendous, thinking you are being lawfully arrested and the realising your not when it's to late, she would of been in the back of his car unable to do anything whilst been driven out of London, she must of clocked after 15 or so minutes that something wasn't right, then 2 hours in the back of his car must have felt like days in the state of fear she must of been in, makes me physically sick how scared she must have of been going through all of that, then to take a turn down some dark lane, it's utterly sickening to think of what she must have gone though when he stopped that car.
The death penalty wouldn't be good enough for this crime.

Horrific. I hope he rots in prison for the rest of his days.

I agree with the person up thread who said "I don't know what to do with this information". Just so full of fury and sadness.

@Ozanj

No offduty policeman or woman should have access to uniform, weapons, warrant cards, or handcuffs - they needed to be handed over at their police station. This would require major reform though and I’m not sure that the force that still hasn’t improved after the stephan lawrance murder is capable of it.

It shouldn’t be hard, a prison officer doesn’t take their keys home, if poorly funded prisons can do it, why on earth can police forces? A failure to do so needs to have severe enough consequences to make officers do it. A fail to report a breach should also have a consequence

Three times he was reported to the police (Kent Police and the Met) for indecent exposure- the police had three opportunities to stop him but did nothing. This mustn't be ignored. Yes he was evil but procedures were either not followed or not in place that allowed him carry on with his violence towards women escalating.

Police statements saying how sad they are blah blah blah are not enough. They had opportunities to tackle him but failed. This must not just be dismissed as the work of a mad man - he was allowed to carry on as a police officer despite have three allegations of indecent exposure against him. How? The Police must be held accountable for failings.

I recently read a report in The Times that at least 15 women have been killed by police officers in the last 12 years. That is a huge cause of concern. This is not just a one off- we shouldn't allow our concerns to be brushed off.

On Sky News it say "cameras from two buses, a refuse lorry and a marked police car caught footage of Couzens talking to her by the car, which was parked on the pavement with its hazard lights on and doors open"
How come the police didn't query what was going on?

@NoLongerADoormat

700 reports of violence against women between April 2015-2018 against police officers. It isn't just Wayne couzens, this is a full blown fucking epidemic.

Wtaf

This has turned my stomach

Utter bastards

Tonnes of them

Can’t actually believe what I’ve read, I mean, I knew it would be bad but even that doesn’t fully prepare you for the awful details.

What can we do as a society to help to prevent or lessen these occurrences? Or are they inevitable?

What on earth drives someone to do this? And the amount of pre-meditation involved is sickening.

I’ve said before that flashing as a crime should be taken more seriously. Is this a precursor to these types of crimes? I remember the polish man in hull who abducted and murdered Libby Squires did similar.

Would there be warning signs or red flags for those in close contact at home or work or are they adept at acting like a normal person?

It just leaves me feeling very flat. The amount mental planning involved for women for even a short walk outside, especially at night, and this can still happen, despite sensible precautions.

@CurbsideProphet

It absolutely chills me that Sarah will have reached that point of complete terror that she wasn't going to the nearest police station to have her wrist slapped. I didn't know her and I feel horrendous for the fear she must have felt.

I asked my DH how I could ever trust a male police officer and he didn't know what to say.

It's so awful, the nearest police station would have been Brixton station, which isn't that far.. she would have realised quite quickly when he didn't turn down the main road towards Brixton. Doesn't bare thinking about

What this tells me is you NEVER EVER get in a car with a man alone if you don't trust them with your life. Uniformed officers do not work alone. Problem is that no one else stepped in when they saw this happening.

@MrsRobbieHart

just something that's not about women being murdered.

I feel like screaming this at the TV most evenings. “Dramas” about women being killed by men seem to be on every other fucking channel. Or “murder file” shows or Netflix documentaries. They’re normalising the murder of women as entertainment.

Totally agree. There’s been a long history of films involving female murder/rape that were clearly made to satisfy certain male desires and fantasies.

I recall sitting down to watch Wolf Creek many years ago after a friend recommended it, getting to a rape scene I wasn’t expecting and feeling violently sick. I felt that film should never have been made.

@Lollipop444

Can’t actually believe what I’ve read, I mean, I knew it would be bad but even that doesn’t fully prepare you for the awful details.

What can we do as a society to help to prevent or lessen these occurrences? Or are they inevitable?

What on earth drives someone to do this? And the amount of pre-meditation involved is sickening.

I’ve said before that flashing as a crime should be taken more seriously. Is this a precursor to these types of crimes? I remember the polish man in hull who abducted and murdered Libby Squires did similar.

Would there be warning signs or red flags for those in close contact at home or work or are they adept at acting like a normal person?

It just leaves me feeling very flat. The amount mental planning involved for women for even a short walk outside, especially at night, and this can still happen, despite sensible precautions.

I completely agree with you re flashing. I actually think we need to change the language used around flashing and turn it into a serious sexual assault - which it is. Flashing makes it sound funny, and not as serious.

I’ve been “flashed” at in a park before, it was absolutely terrifying and has left me afraid to walk through a park on my own - even though I am now 41 and I was 18 when it happened. My whole life has been altered by that incident.

If a man is prepared to assault a woman in that way it generally follows he will do more next time. Just horrible.

Yes agree, I hope he gets a whole life term. I was horrified already but today's details have revealed that it was even worse than we already thought. What an absolute monster.

And it is a lottery as to where you live how seriously things like flashing are taken. I once reported an indecent exposure local to where I live and within 3 mins I was bundled into a police car and driven rooms looking for him. LoliceMEN said the alleged offender fit the description of a nearby rape. They couldn’t have been more brilliant. Sadly it’s really hit and miss not just where you live and local policing ‘ethos’ but also resources available etc etc.

@Keke94LND but then for people of colour, going to Brixton Station wouldn’t have been a comfort given all the ‘suspicious’ deaths in custody over the years for which no one ever got held accountable. The system needs a huge overhaul - there is such abuse of power

What I read earlier made me cry. There's no punishment that fits the crime this despicable creature did to that poor poor woman.
I keep thinking of those witnesses too that have to live with what they saw.
I don't think any crime against an adult has upset me this much, maybe because it feels like it could have happened to any woman and the premeditation/ his job makes it so much worse.
I hope her family are getting the support they need.

I’m absolutely sickened by the details revealed today.

The entire police service needs re-examined on the back of this. Too many bad apples.

@Weirdlynormal

What this tells me is you NEVER EVER get in a car with a man alone if you don't trust them with your life. Uniformed officers do not work alone. Problem is that no one else stepped in when they saw this happening.

The thing is, the do work alone nowadays, it's quite common for officers to be on patrol alone. Also he wasn't in his uniform