Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Sarah’s murderer could die in jail
AMETROPOLITAN Police officer could spend the rest of his life behind bars for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
PC Wayne Couzens, 48, snatched Ms Everard as she walked home alone from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3.
The sexual predator, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift that morning, went on to rape and strangle the 33-year-old marketing executive.
Couzens, a firearms-trained parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, wiped his phone just minutes before he was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, on March 9. The next day, a week after she disappeared, Ms Everard’s body was found in a woodland stream in Ashford, Kent, just metres from land owned by Couzens.
The killing sparked protests at the rate of violence against women.
Yesterday Couzens pleaded guilty to Ms Everard’s murder, having previously admitted her kidnap and rape.
Five members of Ms Everard’s family were joined by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick in court to watch as Couzens, head bowed and shaking, entered his whispered plea by video link from Belmarsh prison.
In the 20-minute hearing Lord Justice Fulford discussed the possibility of a whole-life order as he adjourned sentencing until September 29.
Dame Cressida spoke to the family before making a statement on the steps of the Old Bailey. She said that she had told the Everard family “how very sorry I am for their loss, for their pain and their suffering”.
She said: “All of us in the Met are sickened, angered and devastated by this man’s crimes - they are dreadful. Everyone in policing feels betrayed.”
The police watchdog has received a string of referrals relating to the Couzens case, with 12 police officers being investigated.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating whether the Met failed to investigate two allegations of indecent exposure relating to Couzens in February, days before the killing.
Kent Police are also being investigated over their response to a third allegation of indecent exposure in 2015. Scotland Yard had launched an urgent inquiry after Ms Everard was reported missing by her boyfriend, Josh Lowth, on March 4.
Couzens, who joined the Met in 2018, had booked the hire of a Vauxhall Astra and bought a roll of self-adhesive film, days before the murder. At about 9pm on March 3, Ms Everard set off on foot for the two-and-a-half mile journey home, chatting with her boyfriend by mobile phone on the way.
After abducting Ms Everard, Couzens drove out of London, arriving in the area of Tilmanstone, near Deal, at 1am.
In a police interview, Couzens concocted an elaborate story and claimed to be having financial problems. He said he had got into trouble with a gang of Eastern Europeans who threatened him and his family. A gang demanded he deliver “another girl” after underpaying a prostitute a few weeks before, he said.
In court Couzens’ barrister, Jim Sturman QC, said: “His pleas today represent a truly guilty plea and remorse for what he did.” Mr Little stressed that before the defendant kidnapped Ms Everard, they were “total strangers to each other”.