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Sarah Everard - it's five years ago today that this young woman was murdered

109 replies

Westfacing · 03/03/2026 14:33

The Covid era seems a lifetime ago now and I expect most of us have tried to forget those difficult times.

I'm sad to think that women are still being killed when just going about their everyday lives.

Sarah Everard's mother says her daughter added to beauty of world - BBC News

A close-up photograph of Sarah Everard, a young woman with brown hair, smiling at the camera.

Sarah Everard's mother says her daughter added to beauty of world

Susan Everard pays tribute to her daughter Sarah Everard on the fifth anniversary of her murder.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm28xp0w7v3o

OP posts:
mumofoneAloneandwell · 03/03/2026 20:07

May Sarah rest in peace, and may her family and friends feel at peace, this was awful

LadyGAgain · 03/03/2026 20:10

It was such a shocking and devastating murder. RIP Sarah.
The Met had a real opportunity to stand with women when the peaceful protests were requested. They could have (under the leadership of a female commissioner in Cressida) pulled in female officers to police the event. Instead this misogynistic force said no to the protest because of Covid rules and missed their prime opportunity to advocate for women. A systemic failure that continues today. This poor young woman at the hands of such a monster. Truly awful.

Luckyingame · 03/03/2026 20:20

neleh87 · 03/03/2026 15:50

I was deeply upset by her death. I usually try to avoid reading about things like that but I really couldn't get her out of my head for a long time. She was close in age to me and just seemed like an ordinary, lovely woman. I remember feeling guilty that I had been safe in my flat while this was happening to her. I do think of her at this time of year. Glad I am not the only one.

Yes. Exactly.
Can't believe it's been five years, feel sick all over again.

If only he could have been hung.
Monster is sitting in a cell, demanding an Xbox and worries about his mental health.

WednesdaysChild73 · 03/03/2026 20:20

PeonyPatch · 03/03/2026 20:06

I can still comment on it. It’s a compliment. RIP Sarah!

But what is the relevance? 😡

NutButterOnToast · 03/03/2026 20:25

JuliettaCaeser · 03/03/2026 19:57

Sarah, Zara and Joanna Yates felt like all our daughters. Happy lovely girls minding their own business killed by evil murderers who were strangers to them. There are no words really are there.

This.

TheChosenTwo · 03/03/2026 20:36

JoeyHeathertonwhenyoucallmebabyNsoul · 03/03/2026 18:55

Thought that would be routine checks🤯

Me too, this is utterly disgraceful.

Charley50 · 03/03/2026 21:33

So devastating, and it wouldn't have happened if that bastard’s other crimes had been taken seriously. My heart still aches for her and her family.

Pedallleur · 03/03/2026 21:37

LadyGAgain · 03/03/2026 20:10

It was such a shocking and devastating murder. RIP Sarah.
The Met had a real opportunity to stand with women when the peaceful protests were requested. They could have (under the leadership of a female commissioner in Cressida) pulled in female officers to police the event. Instead this misogynistic force said no to the protest because of Covid rules and missed their prime opportunity to advocate for women. A systemic failure that continues today. This poor young woman at the hands of such a monster. Truly awful.

An over reaction I think Cressida described people's reaction as. One bad apple, blah, blah. Got her Damehood and large pension and off she went. So the fingerprinting and DNA didn't happen under her command and the Met are still finding those bad apples (of which there was only one apparently)

CwinkleCwinkle · 03/03/2026 21:55

A few years ago I watched or read about Sarah's mother and how every morning she wakes up to the pain of another day without her, and every evening she wants to scream at her not to get in the car with him. I can only imagine how much harder that must be on the anniversary.

lifeturnsonadime · 03/03/2026 22:00

Lougle · 03/03/2026 19:25

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68418971

Three police forces failed to make the right decision about him.

2008, 2010, failed vettings.

2018, applied to Metropolitan Police Force and despite having allegations of independent exposure reported to Kent Police and logged on the PNC in 2015, he passed.

2020, indecent exposure and masturbation in a country lane, not properly investigated.

2021 two episodes of indecent exposure at McDonald's. Not properly investigated despite using his own car and credit card.

Five more incidents that only came to light after his arrest for Sarah's murder.

She didn't stand a chance.

She didn't even lose her life because he liked what he saw. He admitted that he was looking for any lone female. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This speaks volumes,

I would like to think that things have changed for the better but I fear that they haven't.

RIP Sarah. You were failed.

Livingoffroyalities · 03/03/2026 23:24

Thinking of Sarah, especially tonight.

Laptoplapdoglaptray · 03/03/2026 23:27

JuliettaCaeser · 03/03/2026 19:57

Sarah, Zara and Joanna Yates felt like all our daughters. Happy lovely girls minding their own business killed by evil murderers who were strangers to them. There are no words really are there.

My thoughts exactly.

RIP Sarah; thinking of her and her family tonight.

Pyjamatimenow · 03/03/2026 23:33

CwinkleCwinkle · 03/03/2026 21:55

A few years ago I watched or read about Sarah's mother and how every morning she wakes up to the pain of another day without her, and every evening she wants to scream at her not to get in the car with him. I can only imagine how much harder that must be on the anniversary.

It was in the family victim impact statement. It was absolutely the saddest thing I’d ever read. Her mother’s words… my god. Every mother’s worst nightmare. I think about her a lot.

EstoyRobandoSuCasa · 03/03/2026 23:35

The older I get, the more I'm noticing the extent and severity of the misogyny in the world. And it's terrifying.

Rest in peace, Sarah.

PeonyPatch · 03/03/2026 23:38

WednesdaysChild73 · 03/03/2026 20:20

But what is the relevance? 😡

Omg, there doesn’t need to be! Stop trolling!

PassingStranger · 03/03/2026 23:50

It's all the incompetencies I cannot stand.
It's the same with lots of children who are murdered.
There was always a red flag, a warning, same with Couzens. He had flashed at a drive thru, Had it been acted upon Sarah might still be alive
With Holly and Jessica how was Huntley allowed to be a caretaker.
It makes you so angry that people could have lived
Just when is the incompetence going to stop.
Why do many mistakes?
Bet nobody ever loses their job either.

As for Couzens, I wish he would be attacked in prison. I expect some will say that's wrong but I wish someone would get to him. Make him feel some pain. Although it won't bring Sarah back.

So thoroughly evil and to think he had a wife, mother, daughter, mum. Just how would he like a man to do that to them?

I remember reading his mum bought him some gifts for his birthday and sent them into the prison. He wasn't allowed them and he wasn't happy.
I felt sick to think of him receiving gifts when Sarah was dead. How could he even look his mother in the eye and not be ashamed for her to know what he had done.
It's all so bloody weird and there was part of me that thought why does she even want to send him gifts.

PassingStranger · 03/03/2026 23:55

amoosebouche · 03/03/2026 14:52

I was so affected by this case; truly, truly sickening. Disgusting excuse for a man, who should have been caught far earlier. I think of Sarah's parents, friends, boyfriend, and also Wayne Cozens's poor wife and children.

It' beggars belief too that he was prepared to throw him marriage away and never see his children again.
He was quite prepared for them to grow up without him and for them to live with having him as a father.
It would have been far better for him if he had gone and sought some help.

PassingStranger · 03/03/2026 23:58

Lougle · 03/03/2026 19:25

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68418971

Three police forces failed to make the right decision about him.

2008, 2010, failed vettings.

2018, applied to Metropolitan Police Force and despite having allegations of independent exposure reported to Kent Police and logged on the PNC in 2015, he passed.

2020, indecent exposure and masturbation in a country lane, not properly investigated.

2021 two episodes of indecent exposure at McDonald's. Not properly investigated despite using his own car and credit card.

Five more incidents that only came to light after his arrest for Sarah's murder.

She didn't stand a chance.

She didn't even lose her life because he liked what he saw. He admitted that he was looking for any lone female. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Not she wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hate that statement.
She had every right being there.

He was the wrong one being there and doing that.
How absolutely stupid and arrogant to think he wouldn't get caught too.

Foo2 · 04/03/2026 00:05

Glad Sarah is remembered today. Hope her loved ones can find some peace. This thread reminds me of this poem, so many of us feel it.

Sarah Everard - it's five years ago today that this young woman was murdered
MmeWorthington · 04/03/2026 00:36

5 years and it feels like today.

We were out, looking for her hat. Her friends spread leaflets, attached to every lamppost for miles around.

It was such a haunting time.

The police told women to stay at home.

We went out and walked her route.

And then later, the flowers spread in deep layers around the bandstand.

Sarah Everard, never forgotten.

AdarajamesAgain · 04/03/2026 01:44

I was involved in the search for her and it was the behaviour of some of the Met officers there that led to me no longer being involved in that work. Whilst waiting in the briefing area to be deployed into a new search area, a number of police officers and a couple of the Search and rescue volunteers were overheard having a conversation talking of their opinions of what had happened and it consisted of things like 'oh she's just some slapper who's off fucking some other bloke and doesn't want her boyfriend to know' !! I wasn't the person to hear this directly or I would've raised hell about it but the person who did hear it didn't feel she could report it so they got away with yet more totally unacceptable behaviour.
RIP Sarah, you should've been safe to walk home.

GentleHedgehog · 04/03/2026 01:57

Thank you for this post.
I still haven't read the full story, I cannot bear to. She did not stand a chance. A colleague mentioned her nephew worked with Couzens and ''everyone at the station knew he was a wrongun, his nickname was rapist". I had to leave the room as I felt like screaming at her.

All those officers working with him, knowing he was off-key. The officers who couldn't be bothered to investigate him after the flashing incidents. Sickening.

Continue to RIP Sarah

Treeper22 · 04/03/2026 02:05

The bit that haunted me the most was the point at which she was in the back of the car and it dawned on her that he was taking her out of the city and the fear she must have felt.

JuliettaCaeser · 04/03/2026 06:25

There are those threads of posters swearing allegiance to their child whatever they had done. I know you can’t say how you would react but struggle to see how that monsters family could continue to have any sort of contact with him.

ArcticBells · 04/03/2026 06:28

Absolutely terrible for that poor girl. And I’ve never trusted a policeman since.

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