Details of Sarah Everard case heighten women’s sense of despair

Campaigners say continuing violence has dashed hopes of rapid change to make the streets safer

This week, as the grim details about what happened to Sarah Everard in her final hours were revealed at the Old Bailey, there has been a sense of despair among women, and the campaigners pushing to make society safer for them.

The hope that Everard's murder would bring about rapid change has all but evaporated. On 18 September, nearly seven months after the 33-year-old was killed, a member of the public found the body of the schoolteacher Sabina Nessa in Cator Park in south-east London.