Hollie Guard app downloaded thousands of times since death of Sarah Everard
The app provides an extra layer of protection to people walking home alone
An app created by the Hollie Gazzard Trust to help keep women safe has seen a a drastic increase in downloads since the death of Sarah Everard.
It launched in 2015 following the murder of Hollie and sends a video and a message to emergency contacts when it's activated by the user.
It's designed to provide an extra layer of protection for anyone using it when they're walking home or travelling to work on their own.
Since the death of Sarah Everard, the app has been downloaded around 60,000 times.
Yesterday, Wayne Couzens was given a whole life sentence in prison for the murder, kidnap and rape of Ms Everard.
She was kidnapped by the 48-year-old serving police officer as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham on March 3rd. He then drove her to Kent and went on to rape and strangle the 33-year-old marketing executive.
Nick Gazzard, founder of the Hollie Gazzard Trust, said: "The number of weekly downloads has grown,
"Certainly with students going back to universities and as police forces take part in campaigns about stalking ad sexual abuse."
With one shake off the phone the screen turns red and makes it clear to anyone in the surrounding area that an alert has been raised. It then captures your GPS location and then begins recording a video.
A second shake of the phone will activate a high-pitched alarm and a flashing light to attract help.
With funding from the Home office, The Hollie Gazzard Trust also provide Hollie Guard Extra which is a 24 hour monitored service.
20 year-old Hollie Gazzard, from Gloucester, was murdered by her boyfriend in 2014 at salon Fringe Benefits where she worked.
Responding to whether the punishment handed to Wayne Couzens will change attitudes towards women's safety, Nick said: "That is a difficult questions to answer.
"I firmly believe that everybody is responsible for the way they act and as a father of a daughter who has been murdered I probably have a different view on these things.
"But we have to make that cultural shift in people to get them to understand that people do have the right to roam around freely and free from fear as well, whether they are male or female.
"I know the majority of people who are being murdered are female but everyone should have that right."
"We've got to tackle this from a lot of different angles. Education is one of those, we do a lot of work in schools about healthy relationships, stalking and domestic abuse and coercive control.
"We need to educate the rest of the public around these areas as well and get police forces and councils to make places safer.