Yet STILL he stayed an officer
20 YEARS of accusations of rape and sex assaults and kidnap...
WAYNE Couzens built up a disturbing 20-year dossier of offending before carrying out the calculated killing of Sarah Everard, a report has revealed.
The Met firearms officer raped two women but still went undetected by at least three forces who failed to spot “red flags” in his behaviour, the report said.
His offences includes an attempted kidnap, multiple indecent exposures and the hoarding of vile porn and sick child images.
But Lady Elish Angiolini’s report found the police had failed to take reports seriously, meaning Couzens was a serving officer when he killed Sarah in Clapham, South London, in March 2021.
Lady Elish wrote in her inquiry: “Couzens is a predatory sex offender and murderer. Evidence of his preference for violent and extreme pornography and history of alleged sexual offending dates back nearly 20 years prior to the murder of Sarah Everard.
“The victims who were subject to his indecent exposures and who reported his offending were not taken seriously by the police.
“The police officers who responded to those victims were not adequately trained, equipped or motivated to investigate the allegations properly.”
Couzens, now 51, allegedly carried out a “very serious sexual assault of a child barely into her teens” when he was in his early 20s. And he attempted to kidnap a woman at knifepoint in North London in 1995, when he was 23.
Married father-of-two Couzens was further accused by two women of raping them, the report revealed. One alleged Couzens attacked her between late 2006 and early 2007 during an event at an East London bar.
The other claimed she was raped by Couzens under a bridge in London in October 2019.
Both incidents were reported to police but a suspect was never identified – until Couzens was arrested and the victims contacted the Met.
Also in 2019, a man in drag wearing a blonde wig claimed Couzens inappropriately touched him in a Kent bar. No report was made at the time, but Couzens was identified after his arrest.
There was not enough evidence to prosecute Couzens for at least five complaints of rape and sexual assault made against him after his murder arrest in 2021.
Lady Elish said: “Given the known under-reporting of sexual offences, I believe there may be even more victims.”
In November 2008, in another part of South London, a woman pushing a child in a pram heard a man call: “Hello.” She turned to see
a man performing a sex act on the opposite curb, with his trousers around his ankles.
The incident was reported to police but the perpetrator was never identified and no further action was taken. However, years later, the woman recontacted the police after recognising Couzens’ mugshot.
In 2015, his car was linked to an indecent exposure when a motorist spotted a man driving naked from the waist down in Dover, Kent.
But Couzens was never spoken to regarding the allegations and no further action was taken.
The report stated: “The failure to investigate the June 2015 report of alleged indecent exposure was a red flag and a missed opportunity to disrupt or even prevent further offending by Couzens.
“Instead, he was able to continue in post as an authorised firearms officer with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.” It added: “The Inquiry considers that, by failing to investigate the 2015 case adequately, Kent Police potentially missed a very significant opportunity to disrupt Couzens’ offending career.
“Allowing him to escape any kind of police response, or to be named as a suspect on the Police National Database, paved the way for him to slip through the net repeatedly.”
In the months leading up to Sarah’s murder, Couzens indecently exposed himself to a cyclist on a narrow country lane and twice at a McDonald’s in Swanley, Kent.
Lady Elish said: “All three investigations were of poor quality and inadequate, which is a disheartening and unacceptable state of affairs.”
Couzens appeared to be a respected officer to many of his colleagues in the police, Territorial Army and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. But he was secretly a depraved monster who was accused of hoarding vile images of children.
He was also know to be an oddball who made false claims to have served overseas and told colleagues he had kept a “go bag” containing basic rations in his car.
Gradually, his behaviour became more depraved. In 2004 he is said to have shown extreme pornographic videos to reservist pals.
Around the same time, Couzens is alleged to have committed an offence of indecent exposure against a teenage girl in South London.
Neither incident was reported to police until after Sarah’s murder.
During his time with Kent Police, Couzens was accused of leaving pictures of his genitals on a female colleague’s phone and touching two female colleagues inappropriately.