Six women have been reported as killed by men since Sarah Everard’s disappearance, says MP

Six women have been reported as killed by men since Sarah Everard’s disappearance, an MP has said.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley said violence against women is an “epidemic”.

“It shouldn’t be a message to women where we’re told what we have to do or what we don’t have to do,” Phillips said, adding that  “the reality is that it’s not a rare crime.

“Since last week, since Sarah first went missing, six women and a little girl have been reported as being killed at the hands of men, so it’s not particularly rare and it’s a fear that women live with. It’s an everyday thing.”

Phillips pointed out that more than one woman every three days is killed by a man, and will today read out the names of 118 women who had died since the previous International Women’s Day.

Phillips, Labour’s shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said: “If the same number of women — well, people — had been murdered in the same period of time that I’m going to have to read out later today, it would be a national scandal.”

Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick, in a statement given yesterday announcing the discovery of unidentified remains, said that it is “thankfully incredibly rare for a woman to be abducted from our streets.”

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