British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the developments.
“Like the whole country my thoughts are with her family and friends. We must work fast to find all the answers to this horrifying crime,” he tweeted
Marsha De Cordova, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities for the opposition Labour Party, tweeted: “Every woman should be able to walk home at night free from any fear or anxiety.”
Mandu Reid, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, a feminist movement, said the arrest of a police officer made the case “all the more frightening” and called for the investigation to be taken over by a separate force.
“Police cannot be trusted to investigate their own when it comes to allegations of violence against women and girls,” Reid tweeted.
Journalist Rosamund Irwin said Everard’s case showed more needed to be done to “end male violence”.
“That could have been any of us,” she tweeted. “There’s so much emphasis on teaching girls how ‘to be safe’ as though that will protect us, when really we need a different conversation: how to end male violence.”
“We know how rare street abduction and stranger homicide are. That is the ultimate fear, but there’s everything below that level too. Being followed, being catcalled, being touched by a stranger. These things are not uncommon and we never know when one might lead to the other,” one Twitter user posted.
The case coincidentally coincided with the publication of a report by UN Women UK that showed virtually all young women in the UK have been subjected to sexual harassment.
The group’s report was based on a survey of more than 1,000 women nationwide which saw 97 percent of women aged 18-24 nationwide report having been sexually harassed.
Among women aged 25 and older, 80 percent of respondents said they had been harassed in public.
Sarah Everard: Missing woman’s case sends UK into shock