ARABELLA JAMES still has just as many questions as she did in those first, unforgettable few days after Sarah Everard's death in 2021, when news that she'd been murdered by a police officer shocked the nation and galvanised a movement on women's safety.
The south-west Londoner and her housemates lived within a mile of the street in Clapham from which Everard, a 33-year-old Durham graduate and marketing executive, was abducted, raped and killed by an off-duty Metropolitan Police constable in a series of shocking events set to be retold in a BBC documentary next Tuesday.
James, 29, thinks about those events often, whenever she's walking at night or tracking her housemates home on her iPhone's Find My feature. If a police officer stops and asks her to get in his car, what are her options? Will carrying a rape alarm still be the reality for women like her living in London in 30 years' time? And what will it take to feel like the police are taking women's safety seriously, then, if not the brutal murder of a young woman by one of their own? "It's hard to imagine a news story that could shock us more than what happened to Sarah," says James, an executive assistant working in the city.
"What's even more shocking is how little it feels has been done since then.
The Mayor is supposed to be helping make us feel safer, but instead he seems to be spending his money on renaming Tube lines... It's getting boring now, praying for summer to come around so we feel safer. I feel just as afraid walking home at night as we did three years ago... if not more so." James and her friends are not alone.
Denne historien er fra February 29, 2024-utgaven av Evening Standard.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra February 29, 2024-utgaven av Evening Standard.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Why are England wasting time waiting for Tuchel?
Winning the World Cup is the aim, so the new boss should start now
He's been shot, and punched by Mike Tyson, but British boxing's great survivor is back on top and aiming to rule the world
This is where the magic happens,\" reads a big neon sign scrawled across the entrance to the offices of arguably the most powerful man in British boxing today.
How Sketch went from 'obscene' to era-defining
After arocky start, the glamorous and infamous restaurant is now an institution
Money is worth less than time'
He's quit Fendi, but what will Kim Jones do next?
London's Roman Amphitheatre
Guildhall Yard, EC2V
Liberals didn't notice they'd lost relevance in the all-consuming digital sphere
There are many reasons why Donald Trump might have won the election last week.
Do we have to die?
One neuroscientist thinks the answer is no
How to have a magical Christmas in Edinburgh
From cosy cobblestone streets to abundant Yuletide goings-on, few cities rival the Scottish capital in creating Christmas whimsy.
London's best festive restaurants
The social season is upon us once more. These are the city’s most coveted Christmas venues, which need to be booked soon so as to not miss out on the tinsel and tipples.
Rag'n'Bone Man
I struggle with being recognised... I'll never really feel comfortable with it'
