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Wayne Couzens Has Pleaded Guilty To The Murder Of Sarah Everard

Wayne Couzens Has Pleaded Guilty To The Murder Of Sarah Everard

The Met Police officer booked the hire of a Vauxhall Astra and bought a roll of self-adhesive film days before the murder

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens has pleaded guilty to murdering Sarah Everard in a case that has caused widespread shock and outrage.

Couzens, 48, kidnapped Ms Everard in a hire car as she walked home alone from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of 3 March.

Couzens, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift that morning, went on to rape and strangle the 33-year-old marketing executive.

Sarah Everard.
PA

Police launched an urgent inquiry after Ms Everard was reported missing by her boyfriend Josh Lowth.

Couzens, a firearms-trained parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, wiped his phone just minutes before he was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, on 9 March.

The following day - a week after she disappeared - Ms Everard's body was found in a woodland stream in Ashford, Kent, just metres from land owned by Couzens.

Artist sketch of Wayne Couzens.
PA

Last month, Couzens pleaded guilty to Ms Everard's kidnap and rape. Today (9 July) he pleaded guilty to her murder, appearing at the Old Bailey by video link from Belmarsh high security jail.

It can now be reported that Couzens, who joined the Met in 2018, had booked the hire of a Vauxhall Astra and bought a roll of self-adhesive film days before the murder.

At around 9pm on March 3, Ms Everard set off on foot for the two-and-a-half mile journey home, chatting with her boyfriend by mobile phone on the way.

A camera attached to a passing marked police car captured her walking alone at 9.32pm. Minutes later, a bus camera appeared to capture the moment she was intercepted by Couzens in Balham, south London.

PA

After snatching Ms Everard, Couzens drove out of London, arriving in the area of Tilmanstone, near Deal, at 1am.

In the days that followed Everard's abduction, Couzens reported he was suffering from stress and did not want to carry a firearm any more, according to a case summary.

On 8 March, the day he was due on duty, he reported in sick. The next day, police arrested Couzens at 7.50pm - 39 minutes after he wiped the data from his mobile phone.

In a police interview, Couzens initially denied murdering Everard and concocted an elaborate story. He said he had got into trouble with a gang of Eastern Europeans who threatened him and his family.

A gang demanded he deliver 'another girl' after underpaying a prostitute a few weeks before, he said, adding that he handed Ms Everard over to three Eastern European men in a van in a layby in Kent, still alive and uninjured.

However, now Couzens has pleaded guilty to killing Everard himself.

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Topics: News, No-Article-Matching