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  Hello everyone, and thank you for coming out to our May vigil, on a bank holiday nonetheless. I promise not to keep you long. This is the ninth time that we've stood here to remember those women who have been killed by men each month. When we decided to start these vigils, the aim was never to make them political, we chose the location, here by Amelie Delegrange's bench because it serves as a poignant reminder of how lives can be shattered by male violence - and not just the lives of the victims, but all of those who know her, who loved her and even more broadly - all of us who are affected by the knowledge that even in this leafy green suburb, its not always safe to walk home, and for some women, its not safe to be at home. Despite the intention to remain non-partisan, we can't escape the fact that there is an election in three days time. An election where we choose our local councillors to represent us, to make sure our voices are heard. The Women's Equality Par...

  Hello my name is Jude Tavanyar from the Womens Equality Party and a big warm welcome to you on this chilly Spring evening, thank you so much for coming here for a few minutes tonight to support our vigil this first Monday of every month.   Looking around, I see some familiar faces.   People who have come along to be with us every single first Monday of the month night since our vigil began, back in September 2021.   Thank you for coming along again to spend a few minutes with us.   Or, if you just happen to be walking past, and wonder what a group of women and men are doing gathered together on Twickenham Green alongside the bench commemorating Amelie de La Grange, who killed here on Twickenham Green back in 2004 by a man completely unknown to her.   Thank you too, for stopping to hear what we have to say.   We are the Women’s Equality Party, we have been in existence since 2015, and we have been meeting here   by Amelie’s bench sinc...

  Wondered if there was nothing new to say…worried there was nothing new to say.      well there is and there isn’t-    that the point.   this is our   6 th   vigil – that we - WEP - are delighted to be here with you - on Twickenham Green   …..and we do feel like we are saying the same thing……but that is because not enough is changing and we need to keep saying it   We have been here the first Monday of each month since Oct   to mark, remember and bear witness to the women who die at hands of men or where a man is the chief suspect…   In a moment I’ll invite you to spend a moment in silence with us as a mark of respect…..       But If we needed to be reminded of the need to be standing here and of the importance of speaking out about violence against women and girls   in the last month or so …….our headlines have been filled with…..   Aishling Murphy – young...

  Hello and thank you all for coming to join us this evening. This is our 5 th vigil here and I spoke at the first one back in September. I apologise to anyone who was here then for repeating some of the words I used then, but sadly very, very little has changed and so I am having to repeat myself. As it’s the New Year I’m going to start with a rather gruesome review of last year – with permission from Karen Ingala-Smith. She and her team collate information about UK women who have been killed by men (or where men are the principal suspect in an ongoing enquiry) for the blog “Counting Dead Women”. Last year, 2021, they counted a total of 139 women killed. Through the year we were quoting an average of 3 a week – but that was an exaggeration, it’s only 2.67 for the pedants… But it’s more than one every 3 days! Every 3 rd day in 2021 a woman was killed by a man… That is just unacceptable. When Sarah Everard was murdered back at the beginning of March we were hopef...

  Good evening, everyone, thank you for joining us tonight     - and bringing your presence and your voice.   It is lovely to see some familiar faces – and also some new ones and welcome to everyone   This is our third monthly vigil here by Amelie Delegrange’s bench, which was put here to remember her after she was brutally murdered on Twickenham Green in 2004.   For those that don’t know me my name is Trixie Rawlinson. I am a local member of the Women’s Equality Party and I intend to stand a in next year’s council election – in my own ward just up the road in St Margaret’s and North Twickenham.      I think we know why we are here – don’t we.   To mark the deaths of the women who have been murdered – or suspected murdered by men.     These are the most recent figures – and I thank Karen Ingala-Smith and her team from “Counting Dead Women” who have given us permission to use these figures   This yea...

 Good evening everyone, thank you for being here with us tonight – this is our second monthly vigil here by Amelie Delegrange’s bench, which was installed here to remember her after she was brutally murdered on Twickenham Green in 2004. We have new faces here today – so welcome, thank you for coming. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Caroline Rayfield, I am the leader of the Richmond Branch of the Women’s Equality Party, I was our candidate in the 2018 local elections standing in Twickenham Riverside – which is just up there where I live – and I intend to stand again in the election next year. Why this vigil and why now?   Following the murder of Sarah Everard in March, we all watched and worried as the police and her family searched for her, we were all heart broken when they found her body in the woods, miles from home. We were all outraged as the news circulated that she had been murdered by a police officer – a policeman. I wondered if her tragic death was...

  The Women’s Equality Party has a goal to end Violence against Women and Girls, which is obviously a truly massive task. The Richmond branch of WEP believes that huge amounts of outside help will be needed to achieve that. And it would be extremely helpful if a good amount of that help came from the press and politicians – but so far that has failed to be the case. We got excited – wrong word but I can’t find the right one… We got excited for all the wrong reasons when big headlines were written, and huge promises were made after the murder of Sarah Everard on March 3 rd this year. The press ran the story for several weeks, the politicians – nationally and locally – were outraged and made big promises including looking at how - since men were committing the violence and murders - then possibly, men were they key to stopping it. But in reality very little actually happened. On April 27 th , Julia James, a police community support officer, was murdered. It made press h...