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Key Concepts

Angelini Inquiry: A non-statutory inquiry established to investigate the murder of Sarah Everard and broader issues of women's safety in public spaces.
Wayne Couzens: The off-duty police officer convicted of the abduction, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard.
Sexually Motivated Crimes: Crimes with a sexual element, including rape, indecent exposure, and sexual assault.
Prevention: Strategies and actions aimed at stopping crimes from occurring before they happen.
Perpetrator: An individual who commits a crime.
Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR): A framework outlining national threats and requiring police forces to coordinate their response and resources.
Misogyny: Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
Victim Services: Support services for individuals who have experienced crime.
Perpetrator Intervention Programs: Programs designed to address the behavior of individuals who commit crimes, particularly violent or sexual offenses.

Angelini Inquiry Part Two: Critical Gaps in Women's Safety and Call for Urgent National Action

This summary details the findings and recommendations of the second report from the Angelini Inquiry, which investigated critical gaps in the prevention of harm against women and girls following the murder of Sarah Everard. The inquiry, an independent, non-statutory body, has spent over two years examining how Wayne Couzens, an off-duty police officer, was able to commit his crimes and whether similar risks exist within policing and wider society.

Part One Findings and Context

The first report of the Angelini Inquiry, published in February 2024, focused on the specific case of Wayne Couzens. It concluded that Couzens should never have been a police officer and that opportunities to disrupt his offending and prevent his crimes were missed. The inquiry warned that nothing prevented another individual like Couzens from operating in plain sight.

Part Two: Examining Recurrence and Societal Issues

Part two of the inquiry was launched to investigate the risk of recurrence within policing, examining issues such as police misconduct, information sharing, recruitment, vetting, transfers, and culture. However, the inquiry recognized that focusing solely on policing was insufficient to address the wider societal issues highlighted by Couzens' crimes. Couzens was a repeat perpetrator who committed multiple indecent exposure offenses in public spaces without being apprehended, and Sarah Everard was abducted from a busy London road.

The Public's Call for Action and Women's Lived Experience

The crimes of Wayne Couzens triggered an unprecedented public call for action and change regarding women's safety in public spaces. Despite increased attention, many women still do not feel safe, altering their travel plans and routines out of fear. The report emphasizes that while perpetrators continue to evade detection and prosecution, women deserve to feel and be safer.

Key Findings and Recommendations of Part Two

Lady Angelini's second report presents 13 new recommendations directed at government departments, police forces, and wider policing organizations. The report highlights several critical issues:

Data Gaps and Lack of National Data: A significant concern is the inability to confidently answer basic questions, such as the national number of women reporting sexually motivated crimes in public spaces. This lack of data hinders the assessment of current prevention measures' effectiveness. For instance, it's difficult to ascertain how many women were raped by strangers in public versus those known to them in private. Limited data on sexual assault and indecent exposure further compounds this issue, preventing pattern analysis of offending.
Prevalence and Scale of the Problem: While precise data is lacking, the inquiry acknowledges the significant toll these crimes take on victims and the impact on women's confidence in public spaces. Survey findings are stark:
- Around half of all women surveyed experienced an incident in the last three years that made them feel unsafe due to someone else's actions.
- Among women aged 18-24, 76% reported feeling unsafe in public due to the actions of men.
- A 2021 UN survey found 71% of UK women had experienced some form of sexual harassment in a public space.
Focus on Perpetrator Disruption: Women have consistently called for a focus on disrupting perpetrators. Prevention is seen as most effective when it confronts those causing harm. However, opportunities to apprehend violent perpetrators are frequently missed.
Limited and Disjointed Data on Perpetrators: Data on men who are perpetrators of these crimes is limited and disjointed, impeding efforts to understand and address the issues. This affects early intervention and the prevention of reoffending by known offenders.
Overstretched and Underfunded System: Police, prison, and probation resources are described as overstretched and underfunded, despite violence against women and girls (VAWG) being classified as a national threat in the 2023 Strategic Policing Requirement.
Disparity in Response to VAWG: The response to VAWG is not afforded the same level of funding and preventative activity as other high-priority crimes, even though it is a national priority. Prevention, while mentioned in strategies, often remains "just words."
Chronic Underfunding and Fragmented Allocation: The inquiry found chronic underfunding across the criminal justice system, affecting victim services, prevention research, and perpetrator intervention programs. Where funding exists, it is often fragmented and inefficiently allocated, forcing overstretched organizations to constantly compete for limited resources.
Difficulty in Proving Prevention: Proving that a crime has been prevented is inherently difficult, a challenge heightened by an already demanding environment.
Inconsistency in Initiatives: Despite numerous excellent local initiatives driven by passionate individuals, there is a lack of consistent delivery across England and Wales. This leads to duplication, siloed working, and inconsistent application of solutions, creating an unacceptable level of disparity.
Impact of Online Spaces: The inquiry highlights the critical role of understanding the impact of pornography and social media on women's safety, even though online spaces were outside its direct terms of reference. Concerns were raised about violent, misogynistic pornography and unfettered access to harmful content, with the gap between online and physical worlds closing. The normalization of misogyny and hatred towards women online is seen as a significant concern with potential impacts on physical offending.

Recommendations for Action

Lady Angelini calls for courageous action and stable funding to implement her recommendations. Key calls include:

Urgent National Implementation of Proven Measures: Two specific policing measures are highlighted for urgent national implementation and long-term funding:
- Project Vigilant: Initiated in Tames Valley Police.
- Operation Satiria: Initiated in Haven and Somerset Police. These measures are noted for their close alignment with addressing the crimes of interest to the inquiry.
Treating Sexually Motivated Crime as a Public Health Matter: Addressing these issues requires recognizing them as both a public health and a criminal matter.
Funding Solutions and Protecting Women: Those responsible are urged to implement recommendations, fund solutions, and protect women.
Empowering Communities: Individuals in communities should feel liberated to act to ensure each other's safety in public.
Improved Data Recording and Collection: Strong, collaborative leadership with a shared goal and clear communication is needed to support better data practices.
Sustained Investment: Properly sustained investment in measures known to be effective is crucial.
Courageous Leadership: Leaders are urged to be courageous in their actions.
Addressing Societal Norms: Societal norms must change, and misogynistic perpetrator behavior needs to stop being normalized. Authorities must intervene early by targeting at-risk places and individuals.
Tackling Offending Patterns: Intervening and tackling offending patterns of known offenders through custodial sentencing, behavior change referrals, or orders is vital for future prevention.

Lack of Consistent Action and Disappointment

Despite unanimous agreement from policing and government on the recommendations of the first report, the second report reveals a disappointing lack of consistent and unified action to implement them. Lady Angelini expresses concern that "prevention remains just words" and that VAWG is not being afforded the same response as other high-priority crimes.

Broader Societal Issues and the Role of Online Content

The inquiry acknowledges wider societal issues, including the impact of violent pornography and the normalization of misogyny. The report notes that Wayne Couzens' interests in extreme pornography were a factor. The increasing prevalence of misogyny and hatred towards women online is seen as a significant concern that cannot be ignored in strategies to prevent violence against women and girls.

Conclusion and Urgent Call to Action

Lady Angelini concludes by emphasizing that sexually motivated crimes against women are not inevitable and that there is no better time to act than now, especially with the festive period approaching. She calls on leaders to "get a move on" as lives are at stake. The inquiry's next reports will delve deeper into policing issues and the crimes of David Carrick. The overall message is one of urgent need for coordinated, well-funded, and consistent action to address the systemic failures that allow perpetrators to offend and women to remain unsafe.

Expert Commentary

Molly Malone (Correspondent): Highlights the urgent and stark language used by Lady Angelini, emphasizing that lives are at risk. She points to inconsistencies in approaches across police forces and government agencies, the critical lack of data, and the fact that VAWG is not treated with the same priority as other high-risk crimes.
Zoe Billham (Former Manager, Chief Constable): Describes the report as "sobering," stating that despite "warm words," little has fundamentally changed. She confirms that VAWG is not a national priority in practice, despite its inclusion in the Strategic Policing Requirement. She likens the funding for VAWG to a "Cinderella service" compared to counter-terrorism. Billham attributes the lack of progress to insufficient investment, a lack of joined-up thinking across agencies, and a failure to utilize effective tactics against predatory men, similar to those used in counter-terrorism. She also stresses the need to address societal norms, including the normalization of misogyny and the impact of violent pornography.