Sarah Everard one year on: scale of violence against women revealed with six rapes and sexual assaults in Nottinghamshire every day

Almost 340 rapes or sexual assaults of women and girls were recorded every day on average in England and Wales in the six months following Sarah Everard’s murder.

The March 2021 abduction, rape and murder of 33-year-old Ms Everard, by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, galvanised public anger in the UK concerning violence against women and girls – and the criminal justice system’s failure to tackle it.

New analysis of Home Office data by your Chad’s sister national side NationalWorld.com reveals the scale of that violence.

Between April and September 2021, 34,608 rape offences and 36,265 sexual assaults were recorded by police forces across the two nations, of which 31,194, or 90 per cent, and 30,631, or 84 per cent, respectively involved female victims, both adults and children.

That equates to 338 reports from female victims every day on average – 170 rapes and 167 sexual assaults – and 49 from males. Legally, rape can only be committed by males.

The figures are a count of rapes, rather than unique victims.

In Nottinghamshire, 567 rape offences were recorded in the six-month period, including 515 of females. A further 666 sexual assaults were reported, 529 of them on girls and women.

The figures mean there were, on average, 5.7 rapes and sexual assaults on women in the county every day.

Unreported

Harriet Wistrich, founder of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said it is important to remember many victims do not report their assaults.

Jayne Butler, Rape Crisis chief executive officer, said: “The vast majority of rapes and sexual assaults never get reported.”

The latest annual crime survey of England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics shows 0.8 per cent of women aged 16-74 said they had experienced rape or assault by penetration, or attempts to do so, in the last year, as of the year ending March 2020.

That would mean about 180,000 women had experienced such an assault in just a year, based on mid-2020 population estimates – the equivalent of 493 per day.

The same survey showed 0.1 per cent of men had experienced a rape over the same year. This would equate to 15,000 men.

Ms Butler said there ‘have been few real steps taken to tackle the misogyny that is widespread throughout British society and our state institutions’, despite public outrage in the wake of the deaths of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa (killed in London in September 2021) and Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman (sisters stabbed to death in London in June 2020, with police officers later sharing selfies with their bodies).

She said: “Violence against women and girsl feels pervasive, inescapabale and unavoidable.

“The opportunity for radical change is here. In the past year, report after report has been published detailing institutional failings and giving recommendations for what needs to change.

“Apologies and outrage have flowed, but progress has felt unbearably slow. It doesn’t feel like everyday life and experience of women has changed at all.”

A message from Jon Ball, your Chad Editor: Since 1952, your Mansfield and Ashfield Chad has helped the voices of our community be heard - and with your support, we'll continue for generations to come. Subscribe to our print edition via chad.co.uk/subscriptions #buyapaper