2021 kidnap, rape, and murder in South East England
On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police constable Wayne Couzens, who identified himself as a police officer, handcuffed her, and placed her in his car before transporting her to Kent. Couzens subsequently raped and strangled Everard, before burning her body and disposing of her remains in a pond in woodland.
On 9 March, Couzens was arrested in Deal, first on suspicion of Everard's kidnapping, and a day later on suspicion of her murder. Everard's remains were discovered in a densely wooded area near Ashford on 10 March; following their identification, Couzens was charged with her kidnapping and murder.
Vigils were held for Everard on the evening of 13 March. The vigil on Clapham Common, near where she had been kidnapped, led to a controversial police response and four arrests for breaches of COVID-19 regulations. The murder gave rise to widespread debate about the role of police in British society and women's safety in the UK.
On 8 June, Couzens pleaded guilty to Everard's kidnapping and rape. On 9 July, he pleaded guilty to her murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order on 30 September.
A public inquiry chaired by Lady Elish Angiolini KC was commissioned to investigate how Couzens was permitted to serve as a police officer despite an extensive history of alleged sexual offences. The first part of the report, published in February 2024, found that Couzens had a history of alleged sexual offending and that failings in the vetting process allowed him to become a police officer.
Background.
Sarah Everard.
Sarah Everard was born in Surrey in 1987. She grew up in York, where she attended Fulford School. She studied Human Geography at St Cuthbert's Society, Durham University, from 2005 to 2008. At the time of her death, Everard lived in the Brixton Hill area and worked as a marketing executive for a digital media agency.
Wayne Couzens.
Wayne Couzens was born in Dover, Kent, on 20 December 1972. He was educated at Castlemount School, and after taking GCSEs worked as a mechanic in his family's garage. He enlisted as a private with the Territorial Army in 2002, and over the following four years he unsuccessfully applied to become a police officer on three occasions. He was employed as a special constable with Kent Police in 2006, and was discharged from the Territorial Army the following year for failing to fulfil training obligations.
In late 2010, Couzens was vetted for recruitment to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC). In early 2011 he resigned from Kent Police, and took up the role of authorised firearms officer with the CNC. He transferred to the Metropolitan Police (Met) in September 2018, working as a police constable and firearms officer. In February 2020 Couzens was assigned to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) branch, the division responsible for uniformed protection of government and diplomatic premises. Couzens had not undergone enhanced vetting as part of his recruitment nor had he gone through the mandatory two-year probation period with the Met before joining the PaDP.
Incident and investigation.
On 28 February 2021, Couzens booked a white Vauxhall Crossland from a vehicle hire company in Dover. At 07:00 GMT on 3 March, he completed a 12-hour shift at the US Embassy in London before travelling to Kent to collect the hire car. He then drove back to London where he was recorded as being in Earl's Court and on Battersea Bridge. After arriving in Clapham, he again drove to Earl's Court before returning to Clapham at 21:23.
At around 21:00, Everard left a friend's house on Leathwaite Road near Clapham Junction, west of Clapham Common. She walked along the A205 South Circular Road across the common en route to her Brixton Hill home. She spoke to her boyfriend on her phone for about 15 minutes and agreed to meet him the next day. At 21:28, she was seen on doorbell camera footage on Poynders Road and four minutes later on the dashcam of a passing police car.
At 21:34, Couzens, who had parked the Vauxhall on the pavement outside Poynders Court, stopped Everard and showed her his police warrant card before handcuffing her. The trial judge later said that he had probably claimed that he was arresting her for having breached COVID guidelines. Couzens and Everard were twice captured by bus CCTV; the first instance at 21:35 showed them beside the hired Vauxhall and the second, at 21:38, showed the Vauxhall's number plate. Around this time, Couzens and Everard entered the car and Couzens drove to Kent; the route of the car was retrospectively tracked using CCTV and ANPR.
By 23:43, Couzens and Everard were in Dover and had transferred to Couzens's personal SEAT car. Between 23:53 and 00:57 on 4 March, Couzens's mobile phone connected to cell sites in the Shepherdswell area; it is believed that he raped Everard at some point between midnight and 01:45. At 02:34, Couzens purchased drinks from a Dover petrol station; it is likely that he had strangled Everard using his police duty belt by this time. Couzens then drove to Hoad's Wood near Ashford, where he owned a plot of land. His car was captured on CCTV in the area between 03:22 and 06:32 before driving back to Dover to switch back into his rental car before returning it at 08:26. After Couzens returned the hire car, he drove his personal car to Sandwich, Kent, disposing of Everard's mobile phone in one of the town's watercourses at 09:21. Later that day, Everard's boyfriend contacted the police after she did not meet him.
In the days after the murder, Couzens told senior colleagues that he was suffering from stress and no longer wanted to carry a gun. On 5 March, shortly after 11:00, Couzens bought and filled a petrol container at a service station in Whitfield. He then returned to Hoad's Wood, where his car was captured on CCTV at 12:37, and burned Everard's body inside a refrigerator. At 13:47 he bought two large builder's bags from B&amp;Q before returning to Hoad's Wood on 7 March, where he used one of the bags to dispose of Everard's remains in a pond. On 8 March, he reported himself ill from work, handing in his equipment including his police belt and handcuffs.
At 16:20 on 10 March, police searching Hoad's Wood found human remains in a large builder's bag, approximately from Couzens's plot. Police in Dover also searched the site of a former body repair garage, previously owned by Couzens's family, at the top of the White Cliffs. On 12 March, Everard's body was identified through dental records. Two days later, police focused a search operation around The Rope Walk in Sandwich, and cordoned off approximately of the town. On 16 March, police continued to comb woodland in Kent and police divers in Sandwich searched underwater for Everard's mobile phone.
Everard's funeral took place on 22 May at Heslington Church in Heslington, near York.
The results of a post-mortem held at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford were released on 1 June. It concluded that Everard had died from compression of the neck.
Legal proceedings.
Arrest of Wayne Couzens.
On 9 March 2021, Couzens was arrested at his home in Deal on suspicion of kidnapping. Police arrived at his house at 17:45 and arrested Couzens at 19:47. Around 40 minutes before he was arrested, Couzens tried to wipe the data from his mobile phone. When interviewed, he claimed initially not to recognise Everard after being shown a photograph of her. He then claimed to be having financial problems after paying for sex in Folkestone, and that a gang of Eastern Europeans had threatened him and his family, demanding he deliver "another girl" after underpaying a prostitute a few weeks before. A woman in her thirties was also arrested at the address on suspicion of assisting an offender but subsequently released without charge.
On 10 March, the day Everard's remains were discovered, Couzens was re-arrested on suspicion of murder. On 11 March, Couzens was hospitalised following a head injury sustained in custody; he was again briefly hospitalised the following day after a similar injury. After the incident on 11 March, police said the injury was sustained while he was alone in his cell.
Couzens was charged with Everard's kidnapping and murder on 12 March, following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 13 March and was remanded in custody before appearing at the Old Bailey via video link from Belmarsh Prison on 16 March.
Guilty plea.
On 8 June 2021, Couzens pleaded guilty to kidnap and rape, and admitted responsibility for Everard's death. Pending medical reports into his mental health at the time of Everard's death, Couzens did not enter a plea on the charge of murder.
At a hearing on 9 July, Couzens pleaded guilty to murder. On video link from Belmarsh Prison, he kept his head down and was shaking slightly. He and the victim were "complete strangers" prior to her abduction. After the plea hearing, it was reported that Kent Police had received a report in 2015 of a man in a car in Dover, naked from the waist down. It was believed there may have been enough information recorded in the Kent police system to have identified the man as Couzens, who was a serving police officer at the time. Speaking outside the Old Bailey, Cressida Dick, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at the time, said she felt "sickened, angered and devastated" by Couzens's crimes, adding: "They are dreadful and everyone in policing feels betrayed. Sarah was a fantastic, talented young woman with her whole life ahead of her and that has been snatched away."
Sentencing and imprisonment.
The sentencing hearing before Lord Justice Fulford, began at the Old Bailey on 29 September 2021 following medical and psychiatric reports. Couzens's barrister, Jim Sturman QC, asked Fulford to consider imposing a life sentence with a determinate tariff which would allow Couzens to become eligible for release on licence in his 80s. On 30 September, Couzens was sentenced to life imprisonment with a tariff of a whole life order, with Fulford justifying the severity of the punishment by saying that Couzens's use of his position as a police officer to detain Everard was the "vital factor which in my view makes the seriousness of this case exceptionally high".
In October 2021, it was reported that Couzens was applying for leave to appeal against his sentence. In July 2022, his appeal against his whole-life sentence was rejected by the Court of Appeal.
As of December 2021, Couzens was imprisoned at HM Prison Frankland in County Durham. In March 2022, Couzens was further charged with four counts of indecent exposure related to alleged incidents in January and February 2021. In February 2023, Couzens pleaded guilty to three incidents of indecent exposure that took place in Kent in 2020 and 2021. A further three counts were ordered to lie on file.
In November 2022, two of Couzens's colleagues—PC Jonathon Cobban and former PC Joel Borders—were jailed for multiple counts of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network. Cobban and Borders were part of a WhatsApp group chat with Couzens and another officer where they sent racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and ableist messages.
In April 2023, it was reported that Couzens could be entitled to a police pension worth £7,000 a year. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who had previously and successfully applied to have Couzens stripped of his Metropolitan Police pension, said he may be entitled to pensions from his pre-Met service.
Angiolini Inquiry.
Couzens's crimes led to a non-statutory inquiry headed by Lady Elish Angiolini into how he was permitted to work as a police officer for three separate forces despite his behaviour causing concern. In February 2024, Angiolini's report said that Couzens had a history of alleged sexual offending, that he should never have been a police officer, and that multiple forces missed "red flags" during his vetting processes. The report said his crimes were "the culmination of a trajectory of sexually motivated behaviour and offending", and made sixteen recommendations designed "to ensure that everything possible is being done to prevent those entrusted with the power of the office of constable from