BORIS Johnson today declared the country is “united in grief” over the murder of Sarah Everard as he vowed: “No woman should walk our streets in fear”.
The PM said he was “shocked and appalled” by the news that a police have identified a body found in Kent woodlands as the missing 33-year-old.
Follow our live blog for the latest developments on the Sarah Everard case
Speaking during a visit to Northern Ireland, he said: “Like everybody I’m shocked and appalled about the news from the Met about Sarah Everard.
“I think that the whole country will be united in feeling for her friends, family, and will share their shock and their grief.
“I can see and totally understand why this has triggered such a wave of feeling on this issue, on the issue of the safety of women, and safety of the streets.
“No woman should walk our streets in fear, every woman should feel able to walk our streets in safety.”
His remarks came just hours after a body found in Kent woodland on Wednesday was formally identified as Sarah’s.
Speaking to reporters outside Scotland Yard, Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said Met Police were determined to get justice for Sarah after finding the body hidden in woodlands in Ashford, Kent.
He said today: “As you know, on Wednesday evening detectives investigating the disappearance of Sarah Everard discovered a body secreted in woodland in Kent.
“The body has now been recovered and formal identification procedure has now been undertaken. I can now confirm that it is the body of Sarah Everard.”
He confirmed Sarah’s family had been given the “distressing” update.
Cop Wayne Couzens, 48, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and kidnap in relation to her death.
Police are investigating whether he used his warrant card to entice her into a car as she walked home at night.
The marketing executive Sarah vanished without a trace on March 3 after leaving a friends house in Clapham at about 9pm.
She’s thought to have be making the 50-minute walk to her flat in Brixton, where she lived alone, when she was snatched.
Detectives believe she walked over Clapham Common and was seen on CCTV about halfway through the journey, on the A205 Poynders Road at 9.30pm.
She had been on the phone with her boyfriend Josh Lowth, also 33, for 15 minutes. After that her phone lost signal or was switched off.
She was not seen on CCTV further down the road, or by her flat in Brixton.
It has been claimed police failed to act against Couzens over an accusation of indecent exposure at a McDonald’s in South London three days earlier.
A source today told The Standard: “It’s definitely not that police did nothing about the indecent exposure or that they turned a blind eye to a crime by a colleague.
“But the question will be whether the case was progressed quickly enough.”
The case has ignited sadness and fury among women – who do not feel safe at night – and promoted calls for greater action to protect them.
And Assistant Commissioner Ephgrave said he understood the concerns about the safety of women in the capital that had been sparked by the case – saying the Met were committed to protecting Londoners.
He added: “That commitment is undiminished – if anything it’s strengthened.”
