Helena describes violence against women as an 'epidemic'. Ministers have described a 'national emergency' and the UK government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. To get a deeper, more human understanding of the situation, we tracked news reports throughout 2025 from across the UK of women or girls who had been potentially killed by men or boys.
In today's conflicts, women and girls are facing escalating violence with near-total impunity. From mass rapes in Sudan to attacks on schools and shelters in Gaza and Syria, and the segregation of women in Afghanistan, protection is collapsing as wars intensify. Speaking to Talk to Al Jazeera, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed warns that violence against women is not a side issue but a front-line threat to peace and development.
I read that you shouldn't let a tragedy define you, but I feel that Sarah's death is such a big part of me that I'm surprised there is no outer sign of it, no obvious mark of grief. I have been changed by it, but there is nothing to see. Outwardly we live our normal lives, but there is an inner sadness. People who do know are unfailingly kind and have helped more than they will ever know.
They were among 232 recently released perpetrators who breached licence conditions under a 233 million investment by mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to tackle violence against women and girls. City Hall says the scheme has cut re-offending by 45 per cent and 63 per cent of them are less likely to be charged with violent offences. GPS tagging was used 699 times on abusers in London and works by sharing their location with probation and police to ensure strict conditions are being followed.
Prime Video; available now Waleed Zuaiter, Robin Wright and Laurie Davidson in The Girlfriend. Photograph: Christopher Raphael/Courtesy of Prime Summed up in a sentence A steamy, incestuous adaptation of an excellent novel that pits an adult son's new girlfriend against his mother in an ever-more extreme contest. It has lost little of the book's psychological acuity and retained all of the suspense. Not one to watch with your sons, perhaps, but otherwise enjoy.
But it is beginning to appear that, like Elliot Rodger and others--including serial killer Ted Bundy, who in 1978 brutally attacked four college girls, killing two, at the Chi Omega sorority house in Tallahassee, Florida--Kohberger had a big problem with women. He reportedly had been bullied or teased by peers, especially popular females, in middle school for being morbidly obese, and, as a consequence, may have harbored intense feelings of resentment, anger or rage toward those whom he felt tortured him so cruelly.
Enough is enough. Things are far worse for women than when my Sally Anne was killed. I'm not surprised about Croydon - I've been warning about it for two decades. When detectives first started to investigate Sally Anne's murder, even they were shocked by the number of sex offenders living a short distance away from her home. They had to knock on all of their doors first before widening searches further afield.
The arrests followed nationwide outrage over a video depicting the murders, with many calling it yet another case of honour killing, a phenomenon reported from across South Asia.
A young woman with her whole life ahead of her, taken in the most devastating way. Another family left shattered. Two children left without their mummy.
Annabel Rook was a dedicated advocate for survivors of gender-based violence and co-founder of MamaSuze, enriching the lives of disadvantaged women.
