Richmond WEP ending VAWG

  Hi, good evening and thanks once again to everyone for coming.   I want to start with some good news!! The number of women we are reporting as having been killed by men is the lowest it has been at this point in the year for the last 5 years! But still, since January 1 st this year, and until September 24 th , 85 women have been killed by men – or a man is the primary suspect in the police case.   So it’s not good news is it, really? That’s still 85 too many. And the fact that the total was 139 in 2018 – well that’s just horrific. And it hasn’t been a steady decline which can be attributed anything that any person or organisation or government or media company has done – which is why we are still here and still banging on about it.   So that’s why we need to keep doing this, and much, much more. The social epidemic of men killing women is still an under reported and under addressed travesty. And if anyone tries to tell you that everything is ok because the number

 HI, good evening and thanks once again to everyone for coming. After our vigil last month, which was our first anniversary, we thought long and hard about how and whether to continue and we decided that even though we are not making an immediate and obvious impact it is incredibly important still that we are highlighting the dreadful social epidemic that is the killing of women by men. We talked about recording the speeches and posting them on social media and we are still planning to do that but haven’t managed to sort it for this month.   I will keep this short. Since January 1 st this year, and until September 17 th , 80 women have been killed by men – or a man is the primary suspect in the police case. Since our last vigil the following women are some of those that have been added to that gruesome list.   Patricia Bitters: she was 84, and her 25 year-old grandson has been charged with her murder. Harleen Kaur Satpreet Gandhi: she was 32 and her husband has been

  I stood here and spoke one year ago at the first of these vigils.   The weather was a bit better – we took some photos that I looked at this morning, and I changed my t-shirt cos otherwise I would have been wearing the same outfit!!   Since that night just over 100 women have been killed by men (or a man is the principal suspect in an ongoing enquiry).   The total number so far this year is 68 and the total for the 2021 calendar year was 144.   I’m ashamed of myself that I’ve had to write those horrific numbers down – they should be seared into my memory.   But they’re not – and don’t fret if you get home later and can’t remember them – we’ve all become a little bit overwhelmed by statistics these day.   And of course the point really is that these dead women are so, so much more than statistics.     But while I’m talking about them as statistics I have to acknowledge the originator of the numbers - Karen Ingala-Smith. Karen is an academic and charity CE