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Sabina Nessa was walking to meet a friend at a local bar, when she was murdered in Kidbrooke, London. The 28-year-old teacher’s journey should have taken her just five minutes; instead, her body was found in a nearby park. A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of her murder. For many women, it feels that nothing has changed since the murder of Sarah Everard by PC Wayne Couzens.
The phrase “It could have been me” began to circulate immediately after Everard’s death: words that are once again on the lips of women across the UK, as they reflect upon how often they may shop alone, commute alone, walk to meet friends alone, and exercise alone. In spite of the various measures women may take to avoid harm - whether that be sharing their location with loved ones, walking in brightly lit areas, wearing colourful clothes, or only walking along busy highstreets - it seems their safety can never be fully guaranteed.
Aliya Isaeva is a young mother who has been living in Kidbrooke for about two years; like many other women in the neighbourhood, she is now questioning how safe it is to live there. She told CNN: "Police said that she left her home to meet her friend in a local pub and it was just five minutes' walk for her. We often go to this pub and it is also around 5, 10 minutes walk for us. You feel it might have happened to you. It might happen anywhere.” The park in which Nessa’s body was found is also a familiar spot to Isaeva; she and a friend - Sueda Ciftci - used to visit the green space every Friday. Back then, they thought Kidbrooke was a quiet, family-friendly area to live in.
In July, the safety app WalkSafe reported 112 violent and sex crimes within a 0.9 mile radius of the park where Nessa was attacked. Yet, the Metropolitan Police insist that the streets of London are safe for women. DCS Trevor Lawry refused to rule out the possibility that Nessa’s murderer may claim another life, but in the same speech declared: “The streets are safe for women, I’d like to reassure the public around that, I’d like to make sure that people are free to walk around free from fear and my officers will make sure that that can take place.” Many women are sceptical about the police force’s ability and willingness to protect women from male attackers; Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were stabbed to death in June, by a man who has since been arrested, and reportedly thought he would win the lottery if the two sisters were killed. The Met Police’s competence was called into question, as officers reportedly took selfies with the murder victims’ bodies, and shared them on Whatsapp, with colleagues, and with members of the public.
Again, the Met Police’s ability to vet officers was doubted when Sarah Everard was killed by a serving police officer. In 2015, Couzens was reported for indecent exposure. Days before the killing of Everard, he was reportedly responsible for a similar incident in a fast-food restaurant.
A vigil organised on Clapham Common after Everard’s death in March descended into chaos, as violent clashes between attendees and police officers erupted. Vigil-goers remained determined to show their respects, even after the event was officially cancelled by the Met Police, who refused to give the organisers permission to go ahead with the ceremony. As tensions heightened, flowers and candles that had been laid in memory of Everard were trampled by police officers. Images and videos of predominantly-female attendees being detained by officers triggered alarm bells for many, who felt that women were being prevented from speaking out against femicide. The police defended their decision to try and break up the gathering, as such a vast number of people standing so close together heightened the risk of COVID-19 transmission; at the time, the law stated that mass gatherings were forbidden.
Debates around victim-blaming also unfolded after Greenwich Council was found to have distributed more than 200 alarms to women and vulnerable people in the area close to where Nessa was killed. In response to the move, the Women’s Equality Party tweeted: “Handing out personal alarms. Knocking on our doors and telling us not to walk alone at night. Subtly shifting the responsibility for our safety solely onto women. Police and government need to stop managing violence against women and start preventing it.” Domestic violence activist Zoe Dronfield similarly accused the council of “placing the onus on the potential victim,” something she deemed “disgusting”. A spokesperson for Greenwich Council said that the initiative has been ongoing since 2019, as alarms have been distributed at various events, but that their focus had shifted to Kidbrooke over recent days.
Lisa Williams, the headteacher at the school where Nessa taught, stated: “She was a brilliant teacher; she was kind, caring and absolutely dedicated to her pupils,” and added: “She had so much life ahead of her and so much more to give and her loss is desperately sad.”
Nessa’s cousin, Zubel Ahmed, remembers her as a “beautiful, kind, caring soul”. He described his family as “inconsolable”. Mr. Ahmed said, “Nothing is making sense to us, why she was taken from us we just don’t know.”
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