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

[Westfacing]

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

Yes. I remember there being a thread later on about whether people would get out of a car if a police car tried to stop them. I certainly wouldn't now and would drive to the nearest well lit place like a garage or supermarket. Some of the posters were incredulous - but it's the POLICE. You HAVE to stop.

Nope, not since Sarah.

Rest in Peace Sarah

Rot in hell, Cozens

. ..and to all his fucking corrupt, disgusting colleagues who covered for him and never spoke up, hang your heads in shame. I hope karma comes for every one of you.

Hear hear

I worked in a large supermarket at the age of 16 and a man came in wearing a stinking beige coat and flashed me! I was not taken off the tills and no one checked I was ok. It has upset me for years that a man thought he had the right to do that to someone who was clearly a teenager.

Its so frightening and clearly "Low level" acts like this escalate to more emboldened acts!

It didn't and will never feel low level to me!

Like other PP, this case haunts me so much. I was at uni with Sarah (same college at a collegiate university). I didn't know her, but we would have joined and graduated at the same time. There will have been so many shared experiences, and then... this for her in the prime of her life. It brought it all closer to home somehow. Unbearable to think of what her family and loved ones experienced, and continue to experience.

I’m sorry, it must hit hard.

I remember it so vividly. My ds was a newborn. She’d probably be a mother now

Horrendous , there aren’t enough words to say how awful it was.

Some of these stories are so shocking and I agree that Sarah’s case has led to a complete breakdown of trust between women and the police. I haven’t read the whole thread but I haven’t seen many examples of where the police have covered themselves in glory.

I won’t be stopping for a lone police officer and I will be telling my daughter the same.

I remember being on MN that night.
I’ll never forget that night, really awful.
🌺🌺.

I remember the advice they gave to women (how about 'men stop attacking women'? That didnt seem to enter their heads)

'Ask to speak to the police on the radio'
As if an officer is just going to hand over their radio

'Ask a bus driver for help'
Yep,ill just jump out in front of a moving vehicle that weighs a couple of tons,pray it stops/doesnt hit me and if it does,pray harder that the driver is a decent person and doesn't just drive off
I've had a few run ins with a local bus driver-hes a woman hating incel-hes tried to run me over a few times for daring to cross on a zebra crossing (bus company have refused to take it seriously) and he would make it worse-hes in the same boys club as the met
Plus,after 6 ish,we dont seem to have any buses running

'Knock on a door'
And hope that whoever lives there is in,isnt a man hating incel and is willing to help

'Just run'
Personally,im fat,unfit and have arthritis in my left knee-id hobble away at best
Plus the police would 'do' you for resisting arrest

It's almost like they where talking out of their arses and didnt take it seriously at all

Oh wait....

Oh jesus,im so sorry
As a minimum,someone should have checked you where ok and moved you
It's not 'low level' its fucking disgusting and once they get away with that,they push further to see what else they can get away with-the thrill level gets higher and higher
It really leaves you shaken and its minimised as 'low level','your overreacting' or 'you shouldn't be so sensitive'

I work with a young lad-hes a bit 'odd' but seemed harmless enough
He's also tall,slim and very strong-if he went for one of us,we wouldn't stand a chance
Not long after he started,I suddenly had women (aged from 12 to in their 80's) coming in to tell me he had started to follow them home (or just following them)
Some where bolshy enough to tell him to fuck off (which he refused to do) but some where really frightened of him (and rightly so)
The police did nothing-what a surprise
He left but came back a few months later and hes still at it but is now filming women and girls who walking along and are minding their own business
One claims he flashed his knob at her (I can well believe he did)
He's also taken to hanging around outside the ladies loos at work as its where we get changed-you go in and 90% of the time you'll come out and hes there,just staring at the door (but he knows where the cctv is and is just out of shot)
He wouldn't go for me as hes scared of my partner,but I shouldn't have to hide behind dp
The police have said (after a lot of calls to complain) that unless he attacks someone,they cant do anything (bollocks-they need to have a hard word,check his phone and keep an eye on him)
I'd bet my house that sooner or later,hes going to attack one and then it'll be 'lessons will be learned' (I hate that as they dont learn) and 'we didnt know he was going to do it' (utter crap,I know of at least 30 women and girls that have complained)

They just dont care

I lived in the neighbourhood where it happened, felt furious to a level I did not understand, but wanted to do something useful. I could not help Sarah, but I could perhaps try to prevent the same sort of thing from happening again and again.

So I asked Mumsnet for advice on charities that are doing work in the relevant area, and someone posted this most excellent suggestion.

Having learned more about them, I became a regular supporter.
https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/about
https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/cwj-manifesto#/4-tackle-police-perpetrated-abuse

They do good work. Important work. They raise enough funds to be sustainable, but they could do more work if they had more funding.

I thought it worth a mention on this occasion.

I haven’t forgotten about this awful case. I think about Sarah every so often. It really got to me at the time.

That's shocking. Where I live there was someone flashing a couple of years ago and the police took it seriously enough to publish a warning and ask for sightings.

Thank you for this, I've not heard of this charity.

I’ve reported this victim blaming nonsense. Shame on you!

Cannot believe it has been 5 years 😔 A while after I came across this on social media and made me think of Sarah straight away it made me stop in my tracks…

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cc8E16ioxb0/?igsh=dmhoeHBwZzU5YTBu

Absolute BS. That monster could have perhaps not abused his power in the most heinous way and prey on a completely innocent beautiful human being with their life ahead of them.

He would have grabbed her phone or told her it was not allowed and would lead to arrest. We comply with the police to not get into further trouble. Especially nice law abiding middle class people who likely had zero experience of being in trouble with the police.

Years ago when we lived in London we barely drove and got a hire car. As we had not driven for ages dh went into a wrong lane. The police pulled us over and shouted at us. It was terrifying and we would certainly have followed any instruction they gave as neither of us had been on the wrong side of the police before.

Hopefully he will be next after Ian Huntley.

What is wrong with you

I once took a friends dog for a walk (they'd gone in holiday)

He's a cross breed-2 breeds that are known to be saps and he certainly is (I won't say the breeds as last time I wrote about this,a mumsnetter had a go at me about it-thats what she took from this story)

Wed just got to the local church (we where going to walk round it and double back on ourselves)

I happened to have pulled my back out so was looking around for a seat to rest for a few minutes as I was waiting for the painkillers to kick in properly

Next to the churchyard is a path with hedges either side and a residential house at the other side

Suddenly the dog went mental-teeth bared,fur on end,snarling and spit flying everywhere-ive never seen him behave like that-i really struggled to hold his lead

I saw a bloke stumbling away while trying to do up his trousers

Im 100% convinced he was either going to flash me or attack me-this churchyard is on a main road but set back from it and quiet

I rang the police and over 6 years on,im still waiting for them to come out and take a statement

About 3 weeks later,a woman was attacked and left badly injured by a bloke (who's description matched the man who stumbled out of those bushes) on the same route I take to work (normal street full of shops,barbers and a pub)

Who knows if they'd have taken a statement and put out a description of him that the second attack may not have happened-i did re-ring them about it but nobody got back to me

As it was,they put up a wishy washy status on fb and he was never caught

I dont walk dogs at that churchyard anymore and stick to walking in much more public spaces which is a shame for the poor dogs

A friend sent this from 'Nextdoor'

Friday night I was walking on the common and I tidied up Sarah's memorial flowers at the bandstand, I noticed that a large boxed bouquet that was there on Thursday had gone, but I had seen a man walking away from the common with a same size white flower box just 10 minutes before. If any ladies received an unexpected beautiful box of flowers on Friday from their man, ask him where he got them from

The organiser of the vigil responded to say

The large bouquet was from us (Best of Clapham) as we organised the vigil and the flowers we bought and placed there on behalf of the community and those who couldn’t make it, so it’s said to see it disappear.

Also I doubt Sarah was the first woman he'd assaulted. It's a big jump to go from exposure to rape and murder. There's likely a range of sex workers he abused/attacked long beforehand. With lockdown he couldn't get his fix so escalated.

Horrific case that still makes me feel physically sick. Absolute vile vile predator and excuse of a man. Thank god the bus camera captured him or he'd likely still be out there.