Five years since Sarah Everard, what's changed?

"It seems like it just happened yesterday. I remember Sarah's case. It was really sad and upsetting because this was my local park - my sister makes her way home from school passing this park. The women interviewed by BBC London said male violence against them posed a persistent threat - with little, if anything, having changed to improve women's safety in public spaces."

"Since then, women living locally said they have routinely altered their plans and daily decision-making to feel safer - such as choosing to live within a ten-minute walk from a station or always refusing lifts from strangers. When I was discussing with my family that I wanted to move there they were like are you sure? Is it safe? It doesn't sound safe."

Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, was abducted, raped and murdered on March 3, 2021, by off-duty Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens along her route home from Clapham to Brixton in south London. Couzens received a whole-life prison sentence. Five years later, women living in the area report that the case continues to profoundly affect their sense of safety and daily decision-making. They routinely modify their plans, choosing residential locations near stations, avoiding certain routes, refusing lifts from strangers, and staying within well-lit, busy areas. Despite the widespread grief and attention the case generated, women interviewed indicate that little has fundamentally changed to improve women's safety in public spaces, and male violence remains a persistent threat to their freedom of movement.

Read at www.bbc.com