Sarah Everard's case shows 'we must change, we must take political action'

If you haven’t, you’ve probably still taken a moment to reflect on the case that has prompted an outpouring of anger on social media this week, ­creating what one expert called a ­“sisterhood of shared frustration” and another says may have taken ­society to a turning point.

Sarah Everard was 33. She was a marketing executive and her body was found in woodland nine days after she disappeared one quiet evening.

A serving police officer in the Met’s Parliamentary and ­Diplomatic ­Protection Command has been ­arrested and charged.

READ MORE: Sarah Everard's murder has shocked the UK, but it isn't shocking at all

Sarah went missing five days before International Women’s Day. She went missing two days before 16-year-old Wenjing Lin was attacked at her ­family’s takeaway in Wales. A 31-year-old man has been charged with her murder and did not enter a plea when he appeared in court.

That appearance happened on the same day 50-year-old app ­developer Andrew Innes was arrested in Dundee over the disappearance of missing Bennylynn Burke, 25, and her two-year-old daughter Jellica.

Innes was charged with murder and another child found alive in his home is being supported by police. When he appeared in court, he made no plea or declaration and the case was continued for further examination.

All three cases are yet to go before a jury and no conclusions can yet be drawn.

But only one of these, Sarah’s case, has captured the public imagination and lead to mass debate on social media about women’s safety and ­violence against women.

It’s a response that’s led to comparisons with the MeToo movement, which sought to end sexual assault. Women have shared stories about their experiences in public spaces, telling how they walk with keys between their knuckles and never get in a taxi without sharing journey details with someone they trust.

But it’s also prompted expressions of anger about the way in which ­women are expected to restrict and police their own behaviour to avoid becoming victims of crime. “Don’t go out alone at night, don’t make eye contact, don’t dress a certain way, don’t forget to share your location with a friend, don’t put yourself in ‘that’ position,” one Twitter user posted. “The message remains on how to keep women ‘safe’, as opposed to how to stop male violence.”

Police in London advised women not to go out alone at night during the earlier stages of their ­investigation into Sarah’s disappearance in ­messaging many compared to that ­issued by officers in Yorkshire during the Ripper killings of the late 1970s.

Dr Oona Brooks-Hay, of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, says the response “tells us about where we might be following decades of feminist campaigning” and points to a rejection of “victim-blaming” narratives that suggest a person would not have experienced an attack if only they’d handled ­themselves ­differently.

“It feels like a real shift,” she says. “The volume of women ­coming ­forward and talking about their ­experiences is very powerful.”

Brooks-Hay has worked with women attacked in their own homes by neighbours, at their own parties by friends. She says the current details known about Sarah Everard may “fit the stereotypical picture of what an attack might look like” most crimes against women happen in domestic spaces and are carried out by men known to the victims.

Research suggests almost nine in 10 sex crime victims know the ­perpetrator.

“We have to recognise the diversity of women who experience violence and sexual violence,” Brooks-Hay says. “The responses to them can be influenced by whether they are perceived to be what is termed the ‘ideal victim’ who fits a certain ­profile where alcohol is not involved, and certain other factors.

“We don’t really hear about these in the same way. We always have to have that bigger picture in mind. There are always lessons to be learned but they have to be set in a broader context.”

A total of 207 women were killed in England, Scotland and Wales in the year to March 2020. In November the UK-wide Femicide Census found women over 60 are almost twice as likely to be killed by their sons as a stranger.

READ MORE: Scots pay tribute to Sarah Everard and Moira Jones as nation mourns

A report by UN Women UK this year showed 17% of Scottish women aged 18-24 had experienced sexual harassment in a public space in the previous five years.

Professor Sarah Pederson of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen – a Grampian Women’s Aid board member – says such incidents “happen all the time”.

Sarah Everard’s disappearance and death, she says, “speaks to so many women because this is the one thing that we are all nervous about – what we are seeing on social media shows the climate of fear women live in”.

“Things that men don’t consider are everyday considerations for us,” she goes on. “Women have been ­talking about this for decades. Social media has allowed them to create a sisterhood of shared frustration.

“It can be very good for women to hear they’re not alone.

“Things have to change. We have to have political action, we have to have action by the police, we have to be much better at preventing and prosecuting these types of crimes,” Pederson added.

“We need to take women’s anger and rage and do something with it, not just write on social media.”