Sarah Everard: Clapham vigil cancelled, organisers say

Organisers have asked people to light candle in her memory instead

A vigil planned to commemorate Sarah Everard has been cancelled, organisers have said.

Organisers from Reclaim These Streets said: "Update: We are sorry to confirm that our Clapham vigil scheduled for tonight is cancelled."

They added: "Instead, we are fundraising £320,000 for women’s causes: £10K for every proposed fine for the 32 vigils originally scheduled."

By midday on Saturday, over £100,000 had already been raised.

An online event will instead be held, and organisers are encouraging people to light a candle in Everard’s memory, at 9.30pm, the last time she was seen.

Anna Birley, an organiser, said they did not want to be putting women at risk of fixed-penalty notices.

Sarah Everard: Everything we know about missing woman and what happened to her

She told BBC Radio 4’sToday programme that “sadly” the vigil will not go ahead because “we don’t in good faith think that we can”.

“In part because of the massive individual risk that gives us as organisers and that we don’t want to be putting women at risk of fixed-penalty notices.

“All the women across the country who are seeking to organise their own events too are at risk of criminal prosecutions from the Serious Crimes Act, which is what we’ve been threatened with.”

Reclaim These Streets organisers said they would be joining people across the country and “shining a light - a candle, a torch, a phone - to remember Sarah Everard and all the women affected by and lost to violence”.

“We continue to strongly encourage people not to attend any gatherings on Clapham Common this evening. Safety, both from Covid-19 and legal consequences, has always been our top priority for the women of south London.”

It added: “We aren’t just lighting a candle for the women we’ve lost: we have been inspired by the women who have reached out and hope this is just the start of a movement that will light a fire for change.”

Vigil organisers pointed to lack of “constructive engagement from the police.”

“Our plan was to hold a short gathering on Clapham Common, centred around a minute of silence to remember Sarah Everard and all women lost to violence,” they said in a statement on Saturday morning.

“In light of the lack of constructive engagement from the Metropolitan Police, we were forced to cancel this event.”

(PA)

A High Court judge on Friday refused to intervene in a legal battle between organisers of vigils, and the Metropolitan Police.

Commander Catherine Roper, Metropolitan Police lead for community engagement, said the force took “no joy” in the cancellation of the vigil but insisted it was the “right thing to do”.

She said: “I would like to thank the organisers of tonight’s vigil in Clapham Common for cancelling the gathering. Since Sarah’s disappearance, we have shared Londoners’ anguish, shock and sadness at the truly awful circumstances of her disappearance and death.

Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens has been charged with Everard’s murder.

The 33-year-old marketing executive was walking home last Wednesday evening when she disappeared.

Mr Couzens appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Saturday.

With PA