Images: courtesy of Google free pics.
Information sources: internet news reports, biographies and BBC investigation documentary, Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice (released this month on the third anniversary of her murder).

On the evening of 3rd March 2021, Sarah Everard (aged 33) was kidnapped as she walked home from a friend's house in South London. she was subsequently raped and murdered by Wayne Couzens (aged 48).

Stanza 1: My words are paraphrased from Sarah's mother's victim impact statement:
"The feeling of loss is so great, it is visceral. And, with this sorrow, comes waves of panic at not being able to see her again.....I think of Sarah all the time but the mornings and evenings are particularly painful. In the morning, I wake up to the awful reality that Sarah is gone. In the evenings, at the time she was abducted, I let out a silent scream: Don't get in the car, Sarah, don't believe him, run!"

Stanza 2-5: Wayne Couzens , a serving *Metropolitan (within the ceremonial county of Greater London) Police Officer, firearms officer and part of the Diplomatic Parliamentary Protection branch (PaDP) drove to London in a hired car to carry out his premeditated plan. He had told his wife he was on night shift (although off-duty) and was in the process of cruising the well-lit, public area when he saw Sarah walking home at around 9.30 p.m.

Three days earlier, he had been reported for indecent exposure in a McDonald's drive-through. It was one of, at the very least, 8 similar offences that attracted inadequate/no appropriate follow-up from the police, despite there being compelling witness evidence. This type of behaviour is known to be 'escalation' crime, i.e. unless checked, has the potential to develop into much more serious offending.

Operating in plain sight (according to bus CCTV and a witness report), he stopped Sarah, purportedly for a Covid breach, showed her his warrant card before hand-cuffing her and placing her in his car.

Sarah's compliance with an authority figure, especially the police, would, apparently, have been in character. Whatever she was told, it's unlikely that there was any struggle. However, once inside the car and restrained, the nightmare of being driven on a 70 mile/2 hour journey to near Dover, Kent doesn't bear thinking about.

Once in Kent, she was transferred into Couzens' own vehicle and driven to a woodland, owned by the offender and his wife. where she was raped and strangled with his police belt. Dumping her body under a discarded fridge, he returned home, casually stopping at a Costa for a hot chocolate.

The next day, he returned to the site and set fire to the body inside the fridge. During the course of this sinister act of burning, he made a mundane call to the vet to arrange an appointment.The bones were discarded in an area of water.

Stanza 6: On 9 March 2021, Couzens was arrested and detained. The shock of this horrendous crime, perpetrated by a police officer, rocked the country. A large London vigil, deemed unlawful due to Covid restrictions, nevertheless took place to honour Sarah as well as give expression to women's deep anger and concern regarding personal safety and misogyny and corruption in the police force. Sadly, the police damaged their reputation still further when they attempted, with violence, to break up the two day vigil and arrest attendees.

It became ever apparent that serious failings, in regard to addressing his deviance, had taken place in the course of his policing career. In addition, he'd not undergone advanced vetting nor a 2 year mandatory probation period with the Met before joining the PaDP.

Stanza 7-8: *Sang-froid - cold bloodedness. *force - British term for the police.
The Prosecution was able to prove that he'd used his position as a police officer to detain Sarah and, as a result, on 30 September 2021, he was sentenced to the highest tariff - imprisonment with a whole life order. Following this sentence, he was further convicted for previous indecent exposures, while officers who had colluded with his criminal behaviour were brought to justice.

A crackdown was, subsequently, carried out with hundreds of police officers in the Met and throughout the country investigated and charged. One case in particular, linked to the Met and PaDP was David Carrick, sentenced in 2023 to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years for multiple offences of rape.

The core duty of the police to which they sign allegiance is: "to protect and serve." One is led to question, from this case in particular and numerous others, whether that applies to the community or their own!

In March 2023 the Casey Review, commissioned by the Met in the wake of Sarah's murder, found the force to be institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynistic. More bad apples still exist and, realistically, it may take years to overhaul a system in which "public consent is broken" and confidence severely damaged.

"I can never talk to her, never hold her again and never more be part of her life."

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