Calls for women's safety to be a priority
A women's group in Leeds tells us trust in the police needs to be re-built completely
Women across West Yorkshire are calling for their safety to be a priority, and for MP's on local and national levels to get on board.
We heard yesterday that Wayne Couzens has been given a whole life sentence in prison for the murder, kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard.
Ms Everard 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.
"When it comes to trust in the police, it needs to be completely rebuilt."
Wayne Couzens will die in jail after he was handed a whole life order for the killing which has shocked and outraged the nation.
Rhiannon Griffiths from Reclaim the Night Leeds said:
"There needs to be a real look into the how the police hierarchy acts, in a patriotic society, there needs to be more female police officers, there needs to be more mandatory training when it comes to issues like domestic violence.
"They need to listen to female politicians, look at the way they treat women's marches and vigils. When it comes to trust in the police, it needs to be completely rebuilt.
"This group was created in the 1970's, after Peter Sutcliffe's murders starting happening, and it was literally the exact same dialogue we are using now. It was about the police telling women to stay at home at night, treating the victims as the problem, raising awareness about violence against women."
Sentencing at the Old Bailey, Lord Justice Fulford said the seriousness of the case was so “exceptionally high” that it warranted a whole life order.
Sentencing Couzens, Lord Justice Fulford said the circumstances of the case are “devastating, tragic and wholly brutal”.
The judge said Ms Everard was “a wholly blameless victim” of a “grotesque” series of offences which culminated in her death and disposal of her body.
The evidence gathered against Couzens was “unanswerable” and there was “no credible innocent explanation” for it, he said.
Couzens went “hunting a lone female to kidnap and rape” having planned in “unspeakably” grim detail, the judge said.
The defendant’s preparations included taking some of his police kit with him and lying to his family about working on the night of the murder, the Old Bailey heard.
The judge paid tribute to the dignity of Ms Everard’s family, whose statements in court revealed the human impact of the “warped, selfish and brutal offending which was both sexual and homicidal.”