A Police and Crime Commissioner has sparked outrage by saying Sarah Everard should not have let herself get arrested.

Speaking in the wake of the horror of her murder case, Philip Allott, who represents North Yorkshire, also said that women needed to be streetwise.

He told BBC Radio York today: "So women, first of all, need to be streetwise about when they can be arrested and when they can't be arrested. She should never have been arrested and submitted to that.

"Perhaps women need to consider in terms of the legal process, to just learn a bit about that legal process."

Ms Everard's killer, former PC Wayne Couzens, had tricked her by telling her he could arrest her, handcuffing her and taking her away in a car, claiming she had breached Covid rules.

Mr Allott was trying to explain his view that women should be aware this was not an indictable offence, that could lead to a jail sentence or crown court hearing.

Among those angrily reacting was Ann Barnes, former Kent Police and Crime Commissioner.

She tweeted: "What a stupid, insensitive man! The issue is male violence against women, not women having to be ‘streetwise’ to try to avoid it. "

Ms Everard had been abducted by Couzens on March 3 as she walked home in Clapham, south London.

Couzens, then a serving Met officer, drove her to Dover, raping and strangling her outside the town.

He then burned her body in woodland outside Ashford.

Couzens, 48, from Deal, was given a whole-life sentence at the Old Bailey yesterday.

It was the first time a former or serving police officer has received the most serious sentence.

Others who condemned Mr Allott's remarks were Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Jess Phillips, Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence,

Afterwards Mr Allott apologised on Twitter saying: "I would like to wholeheartedly apologise for my comments on BBC Radio York earlier today, which I realise have been insensitive and wish to retract them in full."

Couzens had last summer pleaded guilty to the kidnap, murder and rape of Ms Everard and was formally sacked from the Metropolitan Police.

Ann Barnes was the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 to 2016.

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