Is the policing system broken for women?
On Friday, Wayne Couzens pleaded guilty to killing Sarah. But in the short time since her death, 52 more women in Britain have been killed in circumstances where a man was the main suspect. Jamie Klingler, who was at the forefront of the movement to reclaim the streets in the wake of Sarahs death, is not so sure. In every single one of those 52 cases and sadly, as we now know, in Sarahs too, there will have been an escalation of behaviour, says Klingler, 43. I am no psychologist, but it must be vanishingly rare that a man goes from having no track record of violence, deviance or abusive behaviour whatsoever to killing a woman. There is always a sliding scale, and until our justice system starts to really understand that and take that seriously, I fear that more women will die senseless, avoidable deaths.  Three days before Sarah went missing, Couzens, a serving police officer, allegedly exposed himself to two members of staff at a McDonalds in Kent. The victims reported the matter to the police and CCTV cameras identified the suspects car. It wasnt treated as a priority, perhaps because it was seen as a low level sexual offence. The Mets handling of the indecent exposure case is now the subject of an investigation by the police watchdog, which will examine why Couzens was not arrested and allowed to continue working. Three days later, he abducted Sarah as she made her way home, then raped and murdered her. It has since emerged that Kent Police are being investigated over alleged failures to investigate Couzens over an accusation of indecent exposure back in 2015. Had those incidents been taken seriously, had any consideration been given to how sexually violent behaviour can escalate from flashing to something far more serious, things could have been so different. Around the time that the poster of Sarahs smiling face was first shared on social media, Klingler tweeted that every woman had the right to walk home safely. It got half a million impressions, and as hundreds of women flooded my inbox with stories of their own assaults, I realised just how many women like me needed a place to stand and be together.  When the news broke that Sarah had been found dead, Klingler, who runs an events company, tweeted that she would organise a vigil. I live alone, and the story had shaken me deeply. Every case like this chips away at your armour, your confidence, your ability to be out in the world living your life.