We’re all feeling the emotional toll of cases like Sarah Everard’s

For women working in the media the news cycle recently has been particularly tough to handle, writes Victoria Richards

First and foremost, we are left thinking of Sarah’s family and friends (PA)

The news this past week about Sarah Everard’s death – at the hands of serving police officer Wayne Couzens – weighs heavily on us all.

First and foremost, we are left thinking of Sarah’s family and friends, for whom the true impact of this terrible loss was highlighted so poignantly in Sarah’s mother’s statement. “I yearn for her,” she said. Even re-reading the statement back, here and now, after a week spent covering these awful details, it still makes me cry. I can’t help but think of my own daughter, particularly when I also read of Sarah’s family keeping her dressing gown, because “it still smells of her and I hug that instead of her”.

For women working in the media, where we are saturated with pitches, breaking stories and opinion pieces, the news cycle recently has been particularly tough to handle. First, we read (and wrote) about the shocking death of Sabina Nessa, who died after being attacked while on a short walk to meet a friend at a local pub in southeast London. Then, the shocking details about Sarah Everard’s murder emerged: the fact that Couzens made a false arrest, handcuffing her before kidnapping, raping and ultimately taking her life.