Sarah Everard’s mother said her daughter “contributed to the beauty of the world” as she paid tribute to her humor and principled nature on the fifth anniversary of her murder.
Writing for British Vogue, alongside a photograph of Sarah taken at the V festival for an online street style series in 2010, Susan Everard said she “loved clothes and fashion” and had “her whole life ahead of her” when the photo was taken.
“It was a golden time when he had just graduated and was back home after traveling to Southeast Asia and was already making plans for future adventures,” he said. “Even though it’s bittersweet, I love seeing her happy and beautiful, with her whole life ahead of her.”
Susan Everard told of some of the ways she missed her daughter, including exchanging recipes, asking her for advice and listening to her laugh. He described Sarah as “thoughtful, trustworthy and principled” and said she “appreciated the absurd but could also be outraged by injustice and bad behavior.”
Susan said she had only seen on video her daughter’s home in Brixton Hill, where she was returning on the night she was kidnapped on March 3, 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
When he cleaned it after Sarah’s death, along with Sarah’s father, Jeremy, they could “see how cleverly he had designed it and how welcoming he had made his home,” she said.
“Sarah had many talents, but in particular I like to think of her dancing: she was a beautiful dancer,” he wrote. “Above all, she was a loving and caring young woman; her many friendships are a testament to her charming nature.”
The Everard family remains a “close-knit family” of four, Susan said, navigating the future together while celebrating Sarah and gathering with friends.
Sarah Everard, 33, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by off-duty Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, who is now serving a life sentence in prison. It later emerged that he had a history of alleged sexual offenses and that flaws in the investigation process had allowed him to become a police officer.
Sir Mark Rowley, the force’s commissioner, told the BBC that, five years after the murder, he understands that some women still will not trust the police, although they are doing more to “root out” potentially dangerous officers.
“We haven’t gotten to the point where every woman is going to say, ‘I completely trust, without a doubt, the Metropolitan Police’. This was a horrible incident, of course it will linger in the memory for a long time,” she said. “I can see we’re making progress and people are noticing. But they should expect more from us.”
Last year, an official report found that a quarter of police forces in England and Wales have still not implemented “core policies for investigating sexual offences”, and women’s charities have said more needs to be done.
Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid, said Sarah’s murder “exposed the entrenched misogyny within the police force, leaving countless women fearful of those who must protect them”.
“Since that day, while some steps have been taken to improve the police response to violence against women and girls, much more must be done as misogyny remains entrenched and systemic,” she said.
