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DEPRAVED PC Wayne Couzens murdered Sarah Everard after police allegedly failed to follow up reports he committed three sex crimes.
Couzens, 48, could spend the rest of his life in jail after pleading guilty yesterday to murdering Sarah, 33.
It has emerged the police watchdog is probing a report of indecent exposure.
No arrests were made after a man said in 2015 he saw a male motorist, believed to be Couzens, who was naked below the waist in Dover, Kent.
The watchdog is also probing how officers responded to complaints from women that he allegedly flashed at them twice just three days before he abducted, raped and strangled Sarah in March.
After the reported flashing at a Mcdonald’s drive-through, police are understood to have been given the registration number of the vehicle Couzens was allegedly driving.
But it appears the leads were not followed up. Couzens snatched
marketing executive Sarah as she walked home from a friend’s house near Clapham Common in South London.
More details about the murder and aftermath can be told for the first time, including how the killer lied in a bid to escape justice and repeatedly returned to her body in the days after the murder.
After being arrested at his home in Deal, Kent – where he lived with his wife and two young children – Couzens claimed he had been forced into grabbing a woman by Eastern European pimps who had threatened his family.
Prosecutor Zoe Martin told Westminster magistrates court in March: “He said he had underpaid a prostitute...
“A gang with links to [her] told him that as a consequence he had to deliver them what he termed ‘another girl’.
“They said if he didn’t they’d harm his family. He said as a result he kidnapped Sarah and drove her out of London.”
Couzens claimed he pulled into a lay-by and three men took Sarah, and that she was uninjured at the time. He admitted to the lies when confronted with CCTV and forensic evidence.
Couzens hired a car for the night of the attack. He drove 80 miles from Dover to London where he saw Sarah walking
alone on March 3. She had left her friend’s house around 9pm to walk home roughly two miles away.
Shortly after, a bus camera caught Sarah by Couzens’ hired Vauxhall Astra, which was parked with its hazard lights
I had to tell the children ‘Your dad’s a murderer’
on. At 1am the car was seen a few miles from Couzens’ home.
At some point during the night, the Met police officer transferred Sarah from the Astra to his own car. Detectives saw the footage of the Astra and traced it to Couzens.
He had used his personal details and bank card to hire the car.
Couzens was arrested six days after the abduction.
A week after she vanished, Sarah’s body was found in a stream near Ashford in Kent, yards from land Couzens bought in 2019.
Even though his phone had been wiped, cell site data linked him to the abduction and the area where Sarah was found.
His device was located there in the early hours of March 4, as well as in the days that followed.
After the murder, Sarah’s parents Jeremy, 67, and Sue, 64, paid tribute to a “wonderful” daughter.
The Met was criticised after protesters were dragged to the floor in handcuffs at a vigil for Sarah on Clapham Common in March.
Couzens, who was an armed protection officer at the US Embassy in South London, previously admitted kidnapping and raping Sarah, but had not pleaded guilty to murder.
Five members of her family were at the Old Bailey yesterday as Couzens admitted murder via video link from Belmarsh prison, South East London.
Met police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick spoke to Sarah’s family before the hearing. She said she told them “how sorry I am for their pain”.
She added: “All of us in the Met are sickened, angered and devastated by this man’s crimes.” Sentencing has been adjourned until September. The Independent Officer for Police Conduct has received a string of referrals relating to the Couzens case.
Twelve officers from a number of forces are being investigated. One gross misconduct notice and six misconduct notices relate to claims officers shared information about the prosecution via a messaging app.
The circumstances surrounding Couzens being hospitalised with head injuries in custody are also being examined. He is thought to have hit his head against a wall after his arrest.
Couzens was a Special Constable with Kent police from 2006 to 2010, before joining the Civil Nuclear constabulary, then the Met in 2018.
Kent police said one minor nonsexual complaint was made against him. The other forces said he had not been the subject of any complaints.
We are sickened & angered by this man’s crimes
DAME CRESSIDA MET POLICE COMMISSIONER