Sarah Everard

Sarah Everard (1987-2021) was a marketing executive who was reported missing in Clapham Common on 3 March 2021 after leaving the house of a friend. On the 10th March, her body was discovered near Asford, Kent in a builder’s bag. Wayne Couzens, a police officer – was charged with Everard’s kidnapping and murder, and appeared before the Old Bailey on the 16th March, and pled guilty on July 9th 2021.

Sarah Everard was born in Surrey, and grew up in York, and attended Fulford School. Her former head teacher Steve Lewis described her as a “popular and well-liked member of our community”. She later attended Durham University where she studied Human Geography between 2005 and 2008. She liked running and taking walks – one of the photos from her LinkedIn account was of her receiving a medal in running gear. She lived in Brixton in a flatshare. On the night of her diappearance, she stayed with a friend in Clapham, phoned her boyfriend Josh Lowth and talked to him for 15 minutes and even walked under the lights on her way back to her Brixton flat. It still wasn’t enough to prevent her abduction and eventual murder. She was taken in a rented car, raped and strangled to death by PC Wayne Couzens – a firearms officer.

The disappearance and death of Everard sparked nationwide discussions around the safety of women and girls from violence and harassment. Women shared their experiences of being subject to assault or otherwise being made to feel unsafe by men, and the multiple actions they do in order to ensure their personal safety in outings, and even residencies while alone. Vigils against violence towards women were held on the 13th March 2021 – which the campaign group Reclaim These Streets took a visible role in organising. The vigil held in Clapham Common, organised by direct action group Sisters Uncut, which attracted hundreds of attendees, was met by police brutality against them – ostensibly to enforce the powers given to them by the Coronavirus Act 2020. Four people were arrested.

Sarah Everard was one of nearly 200 women killed by the police, the prison system or in custody. In a speech to the Women’s Institute, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said this of PC Wayne Couzens actions:

“We recognise we must be – and we are – intolerant of violence against women and girls…I have 44,000 police officers and staff working in the Met. Sadly some are abused at home for example.

And sadly on occasion I have a bad’un. We are intolerant and we set ourselves high standards in how we work to identify, prevent and tackle any such behaviours.”

On the day that PC Wayne Couzans pled guilty to Sarah Everard’s kidnap and rape, Cressida Dick, again, said of Couzans’ crimes:

“They are dreadful and everyone in policing feels betrayed. Sarah was a fantastic, talented young woman with her whole life ahead of her and that has been snatched away.”

These speeches of course did not highlight the women manipulated into sexual relationships by undercover police – a practice that had gone on for decades, and the full exposure of which has yet to reach full disclosure. It also doesn’t recognise the police brutality which occured on the night of the Clapham Common vigil.

Unfortunately, the public outcry from Everard’s murder also highlights the lack of response to BAME women going missing. The mother of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman – sisters who disappeared, found dead and later police had taken selfies with their bodies and shared them on WhatsApp; said that race played a factor in how much attention her daughters received:

“Other people in this world have more kudos than people of colour.

From my point of view – all women, women of colour, white women – we are on the same journey, we’re on a journey to say that we all matter.”

In response to Sarah Everard’s murder, trials of new laws protecting women against sexual harassment in public are set for Autumn. Sentencing of Wayne Couzans is set for the 9th September 2021.

*Update 1/10/21: cw: rape, violence, murder, racism, homophobia

Further horrific details have come to light on the encounter Sarah Everard had with PC Wayne Couzens and events which led to her death. As she was returning to her flat, Couzens intercepted and then committed a false arrest citing the poers given to him under the Coronavirus Act 2020 and took her into the van he rented – essentially kidnap by cop. Witnesses driving by are said to have assumed that she did something wrong and didn’t intervene. After the abuction, Couzens drove to Kent where the car owned was, then transferred Ms Everard to his vehicle as he drove to a nearby village. Couzans strangled Everard with his hands and belt, raped and murdered her, and then burned her body. At some point before or after her death, Couzens went to a petrol station to purchase a Lucozade and a bottle of water.

The Old Bailey came to learn that Couzens was nicknamed “the rapist” by his fellow officers, had outstanding complaints for flashing, and was reportedly part of a WhatsApp group with other police officers with messages regularly filled with misogyny, racism and homophobia. The five officers alleged to have been involved are said to be under investigation. In light of these details, it is further suspected he may have committed other assaults – even murders.

Couzens was sentenced to life imprisonment on 30th September 2021 – upon the verdict, his employment with the Metropolitan Police was terminated.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has said “[she] will do everything in her power to ensure any lessons are learned”. She is resisting calls on her to resign.

On 29th September 2021, Sisters Uncut held a protest outside the Old Bailey during Wayne Couzens’ sentencing. They have subsequently announced the launch of Copwatch groups across the UK, and a national training service of intervening during stop-and-searches.

Wayne Couzens was not a “wrong-un” or a “bad apple”. He was part of a violent institution which uses the authority given to them by the state to brutalize women and marginalised people, maintained by “policing by consent”. He was a predatory creature given power to engage in his depraved urges with impunity – under the protection of the institution he served.

In light of this, the case of Kate Wilson, the treatment of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman and many others, we need to really ask ourselves whether the priority should be empowering the police to “keep women and girls safe”.

See also:

• Violence against women
• Femicide
• Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman
• Institutional sexism
• The coronavirus era
• Police brutality
• “Abolish the police”