SUSPECT INJURED IN CELL
PC FOUND WITH HEAD INJURY AS MET OFFICERS PROBED OVER RESPONSE TO ALLEGED INDECENT EXPOSURE
THE police officer being held on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sarah Everard was taken to hospital with ‘a head injury’ after being found collapsed in his cell, it was revealed last night.
PC Wayne Couzens, a member of the Metropolitan Police’s diplomatic guard in Westminster, was reportedly alone at the time of the injury – but was supposed to be checked every 15 minutes.
The force said: ‘He has since been discharged and returned to custody.’
Police were yesterday granted an extension to Couzens’ custody.
He is also being held over an alleged indecent exposure at a fast food restaurant in south London, reported to Scotland Yard on February 28, four days before Sarah went missing on March 3. Watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating whether officers ‘responded appropriately’ after the Met made a voluntary referral. Couzens is said to have finished a shift at the US Embassy in Nine Elms about an hour before Sarah disappeared. The father-of-two was arrested at the home in Deal, Kent, he shares with wife Elena, 38, on Tuesday – a day before human remains were found in woods in Ashford.
Offering his sympathies to Sarah’s family and friends, Martin Hewitt, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: ‘Police officers join to keep people safe, so news that a serving officer has been arrested on suspicion of murder has sent shock and anger and sadness across policing.’
Police have also said a woman in her 30s – arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender – has been bailed to return to a station in mid-April.