The serving police officer who murdered English woman Sarah Everard, sparking a national conversation about policing and violence against women, should never have been an officer, a report has found.
Wayne Couzens, then an off-duty officer in London’s Metropolitan Police Service, abducted, raped and murdered the 33-year-old when she was walking home on March 3, 2021.
Everard’s family believe she never would have got in Couzens’ car if he hadn’t pretended to be a plain clothes officer, using his knowledge of policing to falsely arrest her.
Damning 347-page findings released on Thursday detailed evidence of Couzens’ “preference for violent and extreme pornography and history of alleged sexual offending” dating back nearly 20 years and criticised repeated failures to properly investigate claims against him.
Inquiry chair Lady Elish Angiolini made 16 recommendations calling for dramatic change to police vetting procedures, culture and approaches to investigating indecent exposure.
She said red flags and opportunities to stop him were missed.
“The inquiry found evidence of Couzens’ sexual offending, unmanaged indebtedness, predilection for extreme pornography and a vile, sexualised expression of his sense of humour,” Angiolini wrote.
“He used his position as a police officer to impress or intimidate people he met.
“Couzens should never have been a police officer, but opportunities to deny him that privilege were missed.”
Couzens was sentenced to life without parole for Everard’s murder and later convicted of three separate indecent exposure incidents – and pleaded guilty to a fourth left on file – that took place while he was in the police force but before the murder.
The report found those allegations were not taken seriously enough at the time by police, who were not properly trained, equipped or motivated to investigate them properly and flagged the possibility of more victims yet to come forward.
“Couzens’ alleged sexual offending history and his often poorly and chaotically managed personal debt over many years were red flags,” it found.
“Those indicators should have given pause to those responsible for the police vetting and transfer processes and the vetting decisions, and prompted them to carry out further investigations and refuse Couzens’ vetting clearance.”
The failure to investigate a June 2015 allegation in particular was “a missed opportunity to disrupt or even prevent further offending by Couzens”.
The inquiry also found evidence of an alleged “very serious sexual assault of a child barely into her teens” when Couzens was in his 20s, before becoming a police officer.
“Couzens is a predatory sex offender and murderer,” Angiolini said.
“Evidence of his preference for violent and extreme pornography and history of alleged sexual offending dates back nearly 20 years prior to Sarah’s murder.”
The depraved killing shocked Britain and prompted protests and national debates about trust in policing and women’s safety.
But far from improving in the years since, the inquiry chair said confidence in policing had deteriorated further.
“This case has left a stain on the reputation of the police service and damaged the social contract on which British policing is based, namely policing by consent,” Angiolini said.
Beyond calls to overhaul police vetting and investigations into indecent exposure Angiolini pointed the finger at police culture, saying while Couzens was not “wholly a product of his working environments”, they did nothing to discourage his misogynistic views.
“As long as vile behaviour and deeply abusive language are normalised and accepted as ‘banter’ in policing culture and elsewhere, people like Couzens will be able to continue to commit atrocious crimes undetected,” she wrote.
“Many will say that Couzens’ crimes are a world away from the sexist and misogynistic behaviour that exists within policing, but they sit on the same continuum.”
At a press conference on Thursday morning, Angiolini said “without a significant overhaul there is nothing to stop another Wayne Couzens operating in plain sight”.
Everard’s family thanked Angiolini in a powerful statement released on Thursday.
They said while holding a position of trust, Couzens was in reality a serial sex offender, who obviously should never have been a police officer.
“It is almost three years now since Sarah died,” they wrote.
“We no longer wait for her call; we no longer expect to see her. We know she won’t be there at family gatherings.
“But the desperate longing to have her with us remains and the loss of Sarah pervades every part of our lives.
“The care and support of family, friends and the wider community have helped us to bear this and we would like to thank them.”
UK Home Secretary James Cleverly welcomed the “deeply distressing but incredibly important” report and promised the government would consider its contents and respond promptly.
“It was a gut wrenching betrayal and abuse of power of the most egregious kind and the country was shaken to its core,” he told the House of Commons.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government’s response had been “too weak” and “too late” and called for mandatory national vetting standards for police and other measures.
“We say that this report should be a watershed but we said Sarah Everard’s murder three years ago should be a watershed and far too little has changed,” she told parliament
Angiolini, Cleverly and Cooper all highlighted the terrible impact on Everard’s family and praised their behaviour over the past three years.
The report highlighted a statement from her mother, Susan, describing the pain of her loss.
“I yearn for her,” she said.
“I remember all the lovely things about her: she was caring, she was funny. She was clever, but she was good at practical things too.
“She was a beautiful dancer. She was a wonderful daughter. She was always there to listen, to advise, or simply to share the minutiae of the day.”
