YES, I MURDERED SARAH
PC who guarded the Commons admits to Sarah Everard outrage... but how did police miss three chances to stop him?
POLICE missed multiple opportunities to catch a monster in their midst before Sarah Everard was murdered by a Scotland Yard officer, it emerged yesterday.
Killer Wayne Couzens, 48, was a suspect in a string of sex offences dating back to 2015, which his colleagues allegedly failed to investigate.
It left him free to secure one of Britain’s highest security policing roles as an armed officer protecting MPs, VIPs and foreign embassies.
Yesterday the officer was warned by a judge he could spend the rest of his life in prison after he finally admitted murdering marketing executive Miss Everard, 33, in a crime which appalled the nation.
Within hours of his dramatic plea at the Old Bailey, it emerged the sexual predator may have claimed countless more victims while a serving officer at different forces. The police watchdog has served 12 misconduct notices on officers for alleged failures – including three reports of indecent exposure by Couzens which detectives are accused of ignoring.
Last night police faced fury from campaigners and MPs, who questioned whether the sexual deviant could have been stopped years earlier. It can now be revealed that as early as June 2015, the married father-of-two was reported by a male motorist for driving around his home county of Kent naked from the waist down.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is looking at whether Kent Police failed to investigate Couzens, who worked for the force as a special constable between 2006 and 2010.
Days before Miss Everard’s murder, Couzens is thought to have struck again. Staff at a drive-thru restaurant in Swanley, Kent, told police on February 28 that two female staff members had been flashed by a motorist who exposed himself on February 7 and again on February 27.
But despite being provided with CCTV evidence and his number plate, detectives did not link the two incidents to Couzens.
Had he been identified earlier as a suspected sex offender, Couzens would likely have been suspended from duty and had his warrant card removed. It meant detectives missed the warning signs of his escalating behaviour as he meticulously planned the murder, booking a hire car on the day of the killing.
On March 3 he collected the car at 4.45pm and went on the prowl hunting for a victim to enact his twisted fantasies spawned from an obsession with sex, ultra-violent pornography and prostitutes.
He spotted Miss Everard walking home on a well-lit street in Clapham, south London, at 9.35pm and pounced. It can now be revealed that Couzens had been plotting the abduction for days, purchasing tarpaulin, builder’s bags, a cargo net for transporting her body and carpet protector tape to avoid leaving any trace of his crimes.
When he was eventually captured by his own force, the shameless officer even had an alibi planned in the vain hope of cheating justice.
He fed detectives a pack of lies about being blackmailed by an Eastern European sex trafficking gang into kidnapping a British girl to repay a debt he had incurred due to his use of prostitutes. But yesterday he admitted to the murder.
A haunting final image taken by a bus camera at 9.38pm captured Miss Everard standing by her assailant next to his hire car. It is thought he activated his hazard lights and used his warrant card in a ruse to detain her. Miss Everard would have been fearful about being caught breaking lockdown rules and may have willingly got into his vehicle thinking she was going to be driven to a police station.
Despite his careful planning, the hire car was identified at the scene of the abduction and linked to him, which led to Couzens’ arrest at his home in Deal, Kent, on March 9.
Police found Miss Everard’s body a day later. Her body was discovered in a builder’s bag in a stream 100metres away from a plot of land Couzens owned. It took months before it was established that she had been strangled to death after Couzens attempted to cover his tracks by burning the corpse.
Yesterday Couzens’s wife Elena watched on a remote link as he pleaded guilty. Miss Everard’s parents were among family of hers in court watching him on a videolink from Belmarsh prison. He will be sentenced on September 29.
‘Fed detectives a pack of lies’