SARAH: COP CHARGED
PC on murder rap after body confirmed as hers
A POLICE officer was last night charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard.
PC Wayne Couzens, 48, will appear before Westminster magistrates court for a first hearing today.
He was charged hours after police confirmed that remains found in woods in Kent were Sarah’s.
SARAH Everard’s parents yesterday heard the news they had dreaded, that the remains found in woods in Kent were those of their “bright and beautiful” daughter.
Wayne Couzens, 48, will appear at Westminster magistrates court today charged with kidnapping and murdering marketing executive Sarah, 33.
The Met last night said that Couzens had sustained a head injury for second time while in custody.
A Yard spokesman said: “He was being monitored by officers and received immediate first aid. He was discharged the same day and returned to custody.”
Couzens had also been treated in hospital on Thursday for a head injury.
Scotland Yard said following the charges: “Sarah’s family have been informed and specialist officers are in place to support the family and friends.
PATROL
“The investigation continues and is being led by Specialist Crime Command detectives who are drawing on expertise and skills from hundreds of colleagues across the Met. They are also being supported by Kent Police.”
The statement also gave details of Couzens’ employment with the Met, saying the information was being given “in the interests of clarity about these exceptional events”. Couzens joined the Met on September 10, 2018, posted to South Area covering the Bromley area. He joined the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command on February 1, 2020 “on uniformed patrol duties of diplomatic premises, mainly a range of Embassies”.
Sarah went missing on March 3, while walking home to Brixton, South London.
Her remains were found in woodland in
Ashford, Kent, on Wednesday. Met Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said yesterday: “Sarah’s family have been updated with this most distressing news.” Father-of-two Couzens, from Deal, Kent, was arrested on Tuesday evening.
Officers were yesterday seen carrying out a search on the cliffs in Dover, close to where the Couzens family ran a garage until 2015.
Specialist search teams reportedly examined the entrance to a network of
It is the body of Sarah. Her parents have been told this distressing news
tunnels and shelters under the derelict BCB Garage. Police also began searching a gun emplacement, St Martin’s Battery, in front of the garage. When the garage shut in 2015, Couzens said of his dad: “He would have really
NICK EPHGRAVE MET POLICE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER
loved one of us to take over but he totally understands. Things have to come to an end. I am devastated, I was there for 20 years myself. It’s a huge part of our lives. A family institution.”
Couzens worked in the garage while serving as a Territorial Army reservist.
After taking part in a TA weekend in 2002, Couzens, then 29, was quoted as saying: “We came along for the challenge and adventure.”
In 2004, he was reported to have “excelled at a battalion-run driving course” which he passed with “flying colours achieving Top Student status”. He was reportedly a private with C Company, 3rd Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (Volunteer).
On Thursday, Sarah’s parents Jeremy, 67, and Sue, 64, paid tribute to a “wonderful daughter” who had “brought so much joy to our lives”. Scotland Yard is facing an investigation by the police watchdog into its handling of separate allegations of indecent exposure against Couzens.
He was alleged to have twice exposed himself at a South London fast food restaurant three days before Sarah went missing.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is to probe whether two officers “responded appropriately” in their investigation.
Sarah’s route home had taken in Clapham Common, where additional lighting was installed yesterday. Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick visited the common, talking to officers on reassurance patrols.
Lambeth Council said it had installed the additional lighting in “response to requests from members of the local community”.