As we remember the horrendous events and revelations that followed the disappearance of Sarah Everard, five years ago today, Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) reflects on the changes that have been made to policing and the government response to violence against women and girls (VAWG).
Sarah Everard’s disappearance five years ago and the discovery that she had been kidnapped and murdered by a serving Metropolitan police officer, was a watershed moment in awareness around and the galvanisation of action to address VAWG. In the days that followed many women came out onto the streets to protest the lack of safety for women and ineffective police response to violence against women. The Home Secretary announced a national inquiry to investigate the systematic failures that allowed the perpetrator to remain in policing.
CWJ amplified the concerns they had raised in their police super-complaint a year earlier with regard to police perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA). With the publicity generated by the Sarah Everard case many more women contacted us to describe ways in which they had been failed by the police and we began to track the initiatives that had been announced to address the problem and the extent to which anything had changed, published in our report in September 2024.
In September 2021, the national inspectorate of policing (HMICFRS) published a thematic report into VAWG which described it as an epidemic that requires a radical change in approach. By July 2024 the National Police Chiefs Council and College of Policing published a report in which they described VAWG as a national epidemic. The new Labour Government in the meantime announced their manifesto commitment to halve VAWG within a decade, publishing their VAWG strategy in December 2025.
Police perpetrated abuse
CWJ has recently provided expert evidence to the national inquiry chaired by Lady Eilish Angiolini setting out a range of reforms to policing required to tackle the continuing problem of police perpetrators. Women who come forward to us still report serious defects in the way their complaints of police abuse are dealt with.
Legislative reform
CWJ has been pushing for legislative change to tackle some of the systemic problems we have identified. We have in particular called for two reforms that are now urgently required and invite the government to include these reforms in the Police Bill due to be published in the next parliamentary term.
Firstly: All reports of PPDA must be formally recorded and referred to the Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC) for it to consider how the complaint or conduct matter should be investigated. Our view is that, in all cases where the IOPC decides that it is not necessary to investigate the matter itself, or to refer the matter to an external force for investigation, there should be a mandatory requirement, made explicit in law, that the matter must then be investigated by the force itself. We have presented the Home Office with the changes in the law required to ensure that this happens in every case.
Secondly, we have proposed legal changes to enable police officer victims of police perpetrators to have the same rights as non-police victims, so that they are able to make complaints. This will give them the right to be informed about misconduct investigations and to appeal outcomes to the IOPC. Approximately 45% of victims of PPDA who have come forward to CWJ are police officers or staff.
‘Esme’, a former police staff member who reported her senior police officer husband for domestic abuse several years ago and continues to fight the system, said:
“Trying to report a police officer for abuse is both terrifying and dangerous, for me, this was exacerbated by his seniority. The process has been so hard and humiliating that I eventually felt forced to resign from my job, a job protecting domestic abuse victims, yet they failed to protect me. Not only is your personal life turned upside down, but you face losing your career”.
Harriet Wistrich, CEO of CWJ, said:
“There is no doubt that the horrific murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer has been a galvanising moment in relation to violence against women and girls. While we welcome the many announcements that have been made of policies and initiatives to address the issues, there is still a mountain to climb. In the meantime we call on the government to enact two simple but crucial amendments to the Police Reform Act which are urgently required to provide parity to police officer victims and ensure all complaints are properly recorded and investigated.”
ENDS