This evening, I walked home from the train station as the sun set and I became acutely aware that the skies are darkening earlier. I found myself walking parallel, on either side of the road, with the man who caused me to breakdown and sob behind a wheelie bin down an alleyway as I returned from an aborted vigil for Sarah Everard and all the victims of gender based violence back in March. As I walked home that night, I watched this man exit a takeaway ahead of me. He paused to let a woman walk past but apparently she didnt respond to this magnanimous gesture of chivalry in a way that suitably flattered his ego and he proceeded to verbally abuse her in a way that chilled me to the bone. He started to follow her up the street, physically threatening her and I ran and caught up with her, pit myself between them and asked her where she was going and told her I would take her there. Her partner soon turned up and she returned home safely and I had a big cry behind a bin and went home. This was just a 3 minute walk from my house and a few days later, as I left my house with my child, this man walked past and looked directly at me as if he knew me. I now see him every few weeks walking his little dog around the streets near my house and I wonder how many women he has abused. How many women he has hurt. How many women he has scared. Because we weren't the first women he'd done that to that night and we certainly won't be the last.
