Sarah Everard’s kidnap and murder is the crime that haunts a generation. Everyone remembers the days of searching, the rising, ambient terror, the devastating truth that was more barbaric than anyone’s worst fears. To every woman it was a reminder: you are not safe, and you cannot trust the powers in place to protect you.
We were supposed to be independent, supposed to be free to walk the streets, whether or not it was dark, or we were drunk, or carried a rape alarm. We will never be so foolish again. It isn’t glib to say it really could have been any one of us, and we all saw ourselves in her. I couldn’t not: we shared a name, went to the same university, lived in the same neighbourhood. The road she was on when she was kidnapped is one I walked at night, alone, all the time.
Sarah Everard’s memory still lingers, five years later, and emotions around it have been stirred up again since the BBC announced it is working on a new drama about the case. More than 400 female screenwriters have signed a letter of complaint seen by Sky News because a man – Jeff Pope – has been commissioned to write it. This, they say, is an opportunity squandered for a story about violence against women and girls to be told by someone who understands.
