Arrested & cuffed, then cop drove 80 miles to kill her
Horrific kidnapping by police officer
SARAH Everard was handcuffed and kidnapped in a fake “Covid arrest”, driven 80 miles, then raped and strangled by twisted Wayne Couzens.
Marketing executive Sarah was stopped by the Met Police officer as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, South London, on March 3.
The court heard he was not on duty that night but told his unsuspecting wife that he was doing an overtime shift.
Couzens showed Sarah, 33, his warrant card before making an “arrest” for breaching Covid rules and cuffing her hands behind her back.
Prosecutor Tom Little described Sarah, who grew up in York, as the victim of “deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire”. Harrowing details of her final hours were revealed at the Old Bailey yesterday at the start of a two-day sentencing hearing.
Parliamentary protection officer Couzens has admitted Sarah’s murder, kidnap and rape. Her killing prompted outrage and sparked protests at the rate of violence against women. Shuffling into the glass-fronted dock with his head bowed, Couzens seemed to sob as he was asked to confirm his identity. Wearing a blue suit, blue waistcoat and black face mask, he was flanked by two prison guards.
Mr Little told the court that Couzens had worked on Covid patrols in the weeks before the murder. Detectives believe the off-duty officer used the pandemic as an excuse to detain his victim.
He spent weeks planning the crime and booked a hire car to use in the kidnap three days before abducting Sarah. The twisted father-of-two then spent hours driving around West and South London before finally targeting Sarah.
Mr Little said his actions were “consistent with the defendant hunting for a lone young female to kidnap and rape”. CCTV was played showing Sarah’s final moments as she strolled home from her friend’s house. Dash-cam footage
showed Couzens’ rented Vauxhall Crossland parked, hazard lights on, on the pavement next to his victim.
Mr Little said: “Sarah Everard is standing on the pavement, behind the car, facing the defendant who is a few feet away. The defendant appears to touch his belt and to be holding up his hand towards Sarah, as if showing her something in it.”
A couple driving on the South Circular witnessed the “arrest” and saw Sarah being handcuffed.
Mr Little said: “The passenger noticed what she described as a man and a woman standing on the pavement with the man behind.
“She started to watch more closely because she saw a handcuff. The woman on the pavement already had her left arm behind her back.
“The defendant placed the handcuff on her right arm. She was compliant, with her head down and did not appear to be arguing. The defendant appeared to be confident.
“They were, in fact, witnessing the kidnap of Sarah Everard. She was detained by fraud.
“He used his warrant card and handcuffs as well as his other policeissue equipment to effect a false arrest.
“Having handcuffed her to the rear she would not have been able to undo the seat belt that must have been placed over her. That was the start of her lengthy ordeal, the 80-mile journey which was to lead first to her rape and then to her murder.
“At some point fairly soon after driving on to the South Circular and having not gone to a police station, she must have realised her fate.”
Sarah was driven away by Couzens at 9.38pm – the start of a terrifying ordeal lasting an estimated five hours. He drove to Dover, arriving shortly before 11.30pm.
He then moved her into his Seat car, which he parked in a discreet location.
Mr Little said he “must have threatened her and she must have remained handcuffed” during the transfer.
Couzens then drove out of Dover to remote countryside near Deal, where detectives believe he raped her inside the Seat. Mr Little said “we simply can’t say” if Sarah was murdered immediately after the rape or later. Detectives believe she was dead before 2.30am, when Couzens went to a petrol station to buy water, apple juice and Lucozade.
“To have left her alive, even in the boot of the Seat, would have been risky in case she was able to make a noise,” said Mr Little. “We are simply not able to say definitely if she had been murdered by then but it would appear more likely that she was.”
After the murder Couzens’ phone was recorded near Ashford at 3am, when he is believed to have hidden her body in a fridge in woods. At 8.30am he was filmed on CCTV in a Costa Coffee in Dover, where he bought hot chocolate with coconut milk and a bakewell tart.
He then took the hire car back, drove to Sandwich and threw Sarah’s phone in a flood relief channel.
Couzens then went home for the rest of day and even found time to make a dental appointment.
On March 5 he bought a jerry can and petrol in Dover before returning to the woods and set Sarah’s body and possessions on fire. A witness told police he saw “strong, intense” flames coming from the area at lunchtime.
Couzens continued to act normally, making an appointment at the vet for the family’s French bulldog.
He then bought two builders’ bags from B&Q in Dover before driving back to the woods to dump Sarah’s body in a pond. Chillingly, he returned to the woods two days later, on March 7, with his wife and two children.
Mr Little said: “He took his family to the very woods where days earlier he left Sarah’s body, then returned to burn it and again to move and hide it.
“He allowed his children to play in relative close proximity to where Sarah’s body had been dumped.”
Police got the crucial lead they needed on March 9, when they obtained CCTV from the 157 bus, which captured her standing next to his hire car. They obtained Couzens’ details from Enterprise Rent-a-Car and to their horror discovered he was a serving Met Police officer.
He was arrested in front of his stunned wife at their home that evening and initially denied any involvement in Sarah’s disappearance.
But he then claimed he was “in financial s***” and had been “leant on” by Eastern European gangsters to pick up girls and give them to them.
When police asked how he got scratches on his face, Couzens claimed they were caused by his dog.
Sarah’s body was found by cadaver dogs in a pond at Hoads Wood, near Ashford, the following day.
Couzens will be sentenced by Lord Justice Fulford today.
The IOPC is looking into claims the Met failed to investigate two previous allegations of indecent exposure linked to Couzens. A third allegation against Kent Police from 2015 also forms part of the probe.