Kirsty Allsop, Did you really say this? What were you thinking.

[VitalsStable]

Saying it was because of lockdown that WC could abduct, rape and murder Sarah. He would have done it regardless of lockdown.

She isn’t wrong.

Lockdown gave him the opportunity to handcuff a woman and get her into his car.

Not so many opportunities for that outside of lockdown.

I agree that it aided him, but I also think he would have found a way even if we weren't in lockdown. Despicable man.

It made it easier for him. Before lockdown, he couldn't have arrested her for walking down the street. She got in that car with him because he was a policeman using the lockdown laws against her.
It made the abduction easier.

There is also the theory that he had less access to prostitutes during lockdown. Less chance to get his urges out on them and it build it up onto acting out the abduction, rape and murder. His use of prostitutes is sickening and how he must have treated those women is awful to think of. He didnt get to do that as much as he would have.

He would have done this eventually. I think we're all sure he would have but maybe lockdown drove him to it faster, made it more likely and the rules made it possible for him to arrest her simply for being outside.

I dislike KA but lockdown certainly made it easier didn't it? How else would he have falsely arrested her otherwise?

I don't doubt he would have carried out these crimes whether or not there was a lockdown but it may not have been Sarah.

I'm also not convinced this was his first foray into rape and murder.

He did use covid restrictions to arrest Sarah.

Unless KA also added that he wouldn't have found a way in the furure, then she IS basically right. He DID 'use lockdown'.

@Butterflyfluff

She isn’t wrong.

Lockdown gave him the opportunity to handcuff a woman and get her into his car.

Not so many opportunities for that outside of lockdown.

She IS wrong.

SE wasn't doing anything wrong that he was able to see just from her being on the street walking. We weren't under a curfew, even though we were in lockdown.

So WC was inventing a 'crime' that didn't, as far as he knew at that moment, exist.

He could have stopped any woman for anything.

If he'd not used lockdown, he'd have stopped a woman for something else OR not even bothered to say he was a copper and just kidnapped someone. He's big enough just to pick up a woman (literally) and bundle her into a car.

It was a situation that gave him an easier opportunity, but men like this always find an opportunity, no matter the prevailing circumstances.

In New Zealand (where Auckland and elsewhere have been under varying degrees of lockdown), women are being murdered at a brisker pace than ever (including a child-sized blind 29-year-old woman with Down Syndrome, raped and murdered on her morning walk).
i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300418992/four-women-killed-in-a-fortnight--justice-advocates-fear-further-deaths

Lockdown is predator heaven for sick bastards. Stuck in the house with an abuser? Why not go out into the nearly empty streets...

I'm a huge opponent of the LD, and I support much of what KA has said. She is right, these draconian powers we granted to the police and empty streets created the conditions that this monster needed.

But I think while this heinous crime is so raw in our minds, maybe now was not the best of times to make that point as a public figure.

Kirsty Allsop is an idiot.

KA often speaks without thinking.

She isn't the sharpest tool in the toolbox.

@Cheesepuff1 I’m Sarah’s age. I think if a policeman stopped my car and told me I was speeding or driving badly I would have been easily tricked into getting into their car. But stopped walking in the street and told I was being searched for drugs or suspected burgular I would have stood and argued because it would be just so weird and unusual it would raise alarm bells- especially with him being out of uniform. It might not have saved me but it would have increased my chances and I’m sure he knew that as well.
However if I had been on a walk/run etc during lockdown I’m sure I would have been more compliant if I knew I technically wasn’t supposed to be out. This is what he was banking on. He might of murdered someone else but saying lockdown had nothing to do with it is like saying him being a policeman had nothing to do with it. a normal bloke could of forced a woman of the street into his car it just made it easier for him that he was a policeman.

It’s like if I’m expecting a boiler repairman I would probably let a stranger into my house because I was expecting it. If someone turned up out the blue I’d be suspicious and ask for ID. Sarah was described as street smart and savvy. She was in her 30’s not a naïve teen.

@tofuschnitzel

Why the feck would anyone ask for her take on this? Is she a well known advocate for women or women's rights? I don't think so.

She literally gets her nanny to buy and wrap all her children’s Christmas presents. She doesn’t know what they get. She’s not even the crafty so and so persona she presents, never mind women’s rights! 😂

I guess we'll never know if he was going to abduct a woman under any pretense that day and lockdown was the first thing which sprang to mind that minute.

'Blaming' lockdown in principal is a bit weird though. Bit out of kilter.

Like saying unlocked front doors are to blame for burglary.

She is making the same point as Peirs Corybn, who had the good grace to turn up at the Old Bailey to make the same point minutes after sentencing yesterday.

I thought he was a fucking twat then and think she is now.

But what’s her point anyway? Lockdown is a bad thing because it contributed to this case?

So if COVID cases rise again, we shouldn’t have another lockdown because helps depraved police officers make fake arrests of women they want to attack. Really?

Without lockdown his victim was probably more likely to be a sex worker or a drug addict and then "we" wouldn't mind so much.

@Seasonschange but there was no law preventing her walking, so she complied with this unjust arrest in the the same way she could have complied with any other one.

He didn’t kill her because of lockdown, but he used lockdown to make it easier for him to do it.

He didn’t kill her because he was a police officer either but he used his status as a police officer to make it easier for him to do it.

@MaenadsJustWannaHaveFun

How is she wrong?

The police have had mad powers during lockdown.

On what pretext could Couzens have arrested her, convinced her she was being arrested, but for lockdown breaches?

This is probably the least objectionable thing that pillock Alison has ever said.

Obviously, he'd have said there has been a report of a woman meeting her description who has been involved in the committing of a crime.

Violent crime against women (and as a whole) outside of the home went down over lockdown. So stopping any more lock downs will not save lives which are lost by violence outside of the home.

It's the opposite for DV and if she had said this in response as to DV statistics I would agree with her but I feel she is using this dreadful crime for her own agenda.

@GreyhoundG1rl

It didn't make him do it, but it aided him considerably. That's the simple truth.

It certainly is. The additional powers the police were given was definitely a contributory factor.

@GreatPotato

Without lockdown his victim was probably more likely to be a sex worker or a drug addict and then "we" wouldn't mind so much.

A lot of people don't mind so much (mainly men and those that think sex work is a choice and not one forced upon the majority of those that undertake it) but not everyone.

He did it because he is a rapist and murderer. He used whatever means he could and took advantage of the situation, without lockdown he still would have found a way to get what he wanted, to rape and kill some other poor women.

KA is using this to promote her anti lockdown stance, she is exploiting Sarah’s name to further her cause, the same cause which allows her to be excused of her driving down to Devon at the start of the pandemic with her infectious husband to spread COVID in a county with less hospital beds than her London (shit, did everyone forget that?) Worst than that she is taking the spotlight away from male violence. KA and her pathetic agenda and WC can go fuck themselves as far as I am concerned, neither have much regards for life.

RIP Sarah

I suppose it carved a path for that to be the specific way that he carried out his heinous ideas. He would have had it in him anyway, but it may have needed more planning/been harder to carry out if it wasn't for those extra powers that landed in his lap.