Wednesday, September 29, 2021

UK

Men 'should be ordered off streets' to protect women when murderers at large

Government adviser Dame Vera Baird has there is a "real vacuum of police action" over violence against women following the death of Sabina Nessa who was killed in south east London


Victims Commissioner for England and Wales Dame Vera Baird has said there is a 'police vacuum' (Image: Getty Images)


ByTim Hanlon
28 Sep 2021

Men should be ordered to stay indoors when murderers are on the loose to keep women safe, a government adviser has suggested.

Victims Commissioner for England and Wales Dame Vera Baird has said there is a “very deep problem” and a “real vacuum of police action in the fight against violence against women”.

A former Labour MP and now an adviser to the government on victims’ rights, Dame Vera was talking at the Labour Party conference where she gave her views following the death of Sabina Nessa, who was murdered on her way to meet a friend at a pub in south east London, earlier this month.

Dominos delivery driver Koci Selamaj, 36, appeared at Willesden Magistrates’ Court today charged with her murder.

She claims that the attitude of the police towards protecting women has changed little since the Yorkshire Ripper was on the loose in the 1970s.


Dame Vera said suggested men should stay off the streets when there is a murderer loose 
(Image: PA)

She said in the Times: "Reclaim the Streets started when the Yorkshire Ripper was at large in the late 70s.

"The point of that was because the police told women in the north to keep off the streets to be safe from him.

"When, of course, we thought they should have been telling men to keep off the streets so what he was doing might be a bit more visible.

"It strikes me that very little has changed amongst the authorities in all those years and we have a very deep problem."


Her views follow the line suggested by Green Party peer Baroness Jones that men should face a 6pm curfew following the death of Sarah Everard earlier this year.

Speaking during a debate in the House of Lords, she said: "If anyone is being advised to stay at home it should be men, not women."


Her claims come following the death of Sabina Nessa earlier this month
 (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Ms Everard died as she walked through London with PC Wayne Couzens pleading guilty to her rape and murder at the Old Bailey.

The proposal by Baroness Jones received plenty of criticism with claims that it was curtailing basic human rights.

Caroline Nokes, Tory MP and Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee said: "You can't go around slapping curfews on one gender.

"Any solution to the real fear that women feel is going to have to be a lot more complex than that.

"Its a bonkers suggestion - but it has got us all talking about what practical steps men can take to make women feel safer.

No comments:

Post a Comment