Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens should never have been hired by police, inquiry finds
- The officer had a history of viewing violent porn and alleged sex offences dating back years before he murdered the London woman in a case that shocked the UK
- 3 police forces ‘repeatedly failed’ to spot warning signs, including a series of indecent exposure incidents, about Couzens’ ‘unsuitability’ for law enforcement
An off-duty police officer who abducted and murdered a 33-year-old woman in south London three years ago should never have been employed in the first place, with three police forces failing to spot clear signals of his unsuitability, an official inquiry revealed Thursday.
According to the damning report, Wayne Couzens had a history of viewing extreme and violent pornography and alleged sexual offending dating back nearly two decades before the murder of Sarah Everard. Couzens, 51, often shared his interests with other officers on a WhatsApp group.
The inquiry’s chair, Elish Angiolini, warned that there’s “nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight” unless there’s a radical overhaul of policing practices and culture.
The murder in March 2021 shocked the country, angered many women and raised questions about how police harboured a murderer in their ranks. Couzens, who was a member of London’s Metropolitan Police at the time, later pleaded guilty to Everard’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
The Met came under further criticism when a vigil involving hundreds of women that aimed to highlight the broader violence against women and girls was dispersed, at times violently, because it breached the coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings in effect at the time.