Everard murderer faces court on new indecent exposure charges
THE former Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, allegedly emerged from woodland naked and exposed himself to a female cyclist just four months before the murder of Sarah Everard, a court heard on yesterday.
Couzens, 49, is also accused of driving through Dover town centre in Kent with the lower half of his body exposed, six years earlier, in June 2015.
He is already serving a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of Ms Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, in March 2021, when he was a serving police officer.
The 49-year-old appeared by videolink from HMP Frankland for the first time, with a grey beard and moustache, to face two new charges of indecent exposure following a referral of evidence from the Met Police.
The ex-armed protection officer was already accused of four charges of indecent exposure and now faces another two allegations after being charged with fresh counts on August 19.
The latest alleged offences took place on June 9, 2015, in Dover and on Nov 13, 2020, in the Deal area of Kent when Couzens is said to have exposed himself to a cyclist. At Westminster magistrates’ court yesterday, Couzens entered no plea to the charges. He spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.
Jocelyn Ledward, prosecuting, asked for the latest charges to be joined with four other charges of exposure in January and February last year, when Couzens is said to have flashed at staff in a Mcdonald’s drive-through in Swanley, Kent. District Judge Tan Ikram remanded Couzens in custody specific to the alleged offences ahead of the next hearing at the Old Bailey in October.
Couzens was formerly based within the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command – an armed unit stationed responsible for the protection of sensitive sites such as Downing Street.
He has already appeared in court since being convicted of Ms Everard’s murder, charged with four other incidents of alleged indecent exposure said to have taken place in Swanley before the killing.
Couzens was the first person to receive a life order for a single murder in the UK. He lost an appeal against the sentence earlier this year. Lord Burnett said that the sentencing judge was entitled to impose a whole life order due to the facts of the Everard case.