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When Sarah Everard was abducted, raped and murdered by police officer Wayne Couzens, thousands of women who knew what it was like to feel unsafe on British streets lit candles and laid flowers in her memory – including the Duchess of Cambridge.
This Thursday sees the fourth anniversary of Catherine’s personal visit to the bandstand in Clapham Common on March 13, 2021.
Blending into the crowd of mourners in an army green jacket, black leggings and knee-high boots, Catherine added a bouquet of daffodils to the sea of floral tributes and took a moment to reflect in front of the bandstand for ten long seconds.
Instead of asking a horde of cameras to follow her to the vigil, the princess went alone – the raw moment only captured briefly by passers-by.
With her hands in her pockets, the princess took one last look at a sign that read, ‘I am Sarah’, before she disappeared back into the crowd as quickly as she arrived.
Typically, members of the royal family don’t turn up to public events by themselves – let alone events of a political nature.
However, the princess insisted on breaking royal protocol to attend the vigil in 2021 which later erupted into chaos as Met police officers clashed with crowds during lockdown.
But Catherine went one step further, taking the time to write the grieving family a personal letter – the contents of which have remained private but a source close to the Everards said they were ‘extremely touched’ to have received it.
It has been four years since Catherine, who was Duchess of Cambridge at the time, attended a vigil at Clapham Common in south London for Sarah Everard
The princess visited the bandstand alone, laying a bouquet of daffodils as her tribute – the raw moment only captured briefly by passers-by
In the private letter, it is believed the princess ‘expressed her absolute sadness at what Sarah’s family and loved ones are going through’, a source told The Mirror.
‘She said she knows that no words can change what happened but that she wanted to let them know that they and Sarah are in her thoughts.’
Royal commentator Penny Junor described Catherine’s subtle visit and private letter as a ‘wonderful gesture’, made all the more poignant as it came six days after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s tell-all interview with Oprah Interview.
Writing in the Sunday Times, she said the fact Catherine quietly turned up at the vigil with absolutely no fanfare ‘spoke volumes’.
‘Kate was making a very subtle point. You don’t need to make a song and dance about things,’ said Junor.
‘When Harry and Meghan talked to Oprah, they were more concerned about their own welfare; it was all about them and that’s been their narrative all along.
‘But there’s a difference between service and self-service. I feel real service is doing things selflessly for others.
‘I think that’s what Kate understands.’
With her hands in her pockets, the princess took one last look at a sign that read, ‘I am Sarah’, before she disappeared back into the crowd as quickly as she arrived
A woman looks at the sea of flowers laid in Sarah Everard’s memory
A sign at the vigil reads, ‘She was just walking home’ with a reference to the statistic that 97 per cent of the women aged 18-24 in the UK reported being sexually harassed
A group of women hug as they stand in front of tributes for Sarah Everard
Catherine was among the thousands to visit the memorial in Clapham
At the time of her low-key visit, Kensington Palace said Catherine ‘wanted to pay her respects to Sarah and her family’ as she ‘remembers what it felt like to walk around London at night before she got married’.
Before she was a mother-of-three, Catherine lived less than three miles from Clapham where Sarah vanished, explaining why her death struck a chord.
In 2006, both Catherine, then 24, and her sister Pippa were pursuing careers in buying and marketing for luxury brands.
Upon moving to London, the Middleton sisters shared a three-bedroom apartment in Chelsea which their parents Michael and Carole bought for £780,000 in 2002.
In her book, Kate: The Future Queen, royal correspondent Katie Nicholl describes how the future princess worked as a children’s accessories buyer for high-street brand Jigsaw.
She worked a schedule of 9am-6pm, four days a week as she ‘needed an element of flexibility to continue the relationship with a very high-profile man and a life that she can’t dictate.’
To get to work, Catherine would drive for 30 minutes in her sleek silver Audi A3 from her apartment in Chelsea to Jigsaw’s head office in Richmond.
So Catherine knew all too well how it felt to be a young woman living and working in London – much like Durham University graduate Sarah who was a marketing executive at the time of her death.
The vigil was planned in memory of marketing executive Sarah Everard, who disappeared while walking home to Brixton on March 3, 2021
Hundreds of mourners defied social distancing to gather at Clapham Common around a bandstand where dozens of floral tributes have been placed for Sarah
Two women hold each other as they cry at the vigil for Sarah Everard in 2021
Sarah disappeared on the evening of March 3, 2021 after visiting a friend’s house on the edge of Clapham Common.
Leaving at 9pm, Sarah set off on the 2.5 mile walk home during which she called her boyfriend for around 14 minutes.
At around 9.30pm, two figures are caught by a bus camera on Poynders Road standing beside a white Vauxhall Astra parked on the pavement with hazard lights flashing.
It later emerged that Couzens used his police-issued warrant card to stage a fake arrest.
He then drove Sarah to a rural area near Ashford, Kent, where he raped and strangled her with his police belt before burning her body in a fridge and dumping her remains in a nearby pond.
Her body was found a week later on March 10.
Vigils were held across the country to mark Sarah’s death, including the event at Clapham Common which was attended by the Princess of Wales.
As night fell, the peaceful vigil Kate had attended turned into chaos as police officers detained protestors for violating Covid restrictions.
Patsy Stevenson is detained by officers in Clapham Common on Saturday evening. Two years later, the Met police paid her compensation
Police attempt to break up a vigil for Ms Everard at the bandstand on Clapham Common
Onlookers claimed that officers shoved women, pinned protestors to the ground and ‘elbowed people in the faces’.
In September 2021, Couzens was served a whole life order, and has also been found guilty on three counts of indecent exposure which occurred prior to murdering Sarah.
In September 2023, the Met Police paid compensation to Patsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid who were arrested at the Clapham vigil, with Scotland Yard chiefs apologising to the two women.
The Met said they ‘tried to achieve a balance that recognised the rights of the public to protest and to express their grief and sadness, while also continuing to enforce the relevant Covid legislation.
‘We are working every day to make London a city where women and girls can feel and be safe.’
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