Wayne Couzens, 48, admitted murdering Sarah Everard after she went missing on 3 March. Photograph: Metropolitan Police
By Nadeem Badshah
Former diplomatic police officer dismissed after admitting the kidnap and killing of 33-year-old
The Metropolitan police has sacked PC Wayne Couzens with immediate effect, a week after he admitted in court to murdering Sarah Everard after abducting her as she walked home in south London.
The police constable, 48, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey having admitted to her kidnap and rape at an earlier hearing. He faces a mandatory life sentence. A Met hearing has now found that Couzens’ conduct “breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of discreditable conduct”.
The armed officer in the Met’s elite parliamentary and diplomatic protection group was dismissed without notice. Assistant commissioner Helen Ball, who chaired the hearing, said: “Couzens has betrayed everything we, the police, stand for and following his guilty pleas and convictions I have dismissed him today.
“All of us in the Met are horrified, sickened and angered by this man’s crimes. “Sarah was a young woman who had her life cruelly snatched away from her. “I know she is sorely missed by so many people and our thoughts remain with her loved ones. We are so profoundly sorry.”
Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, disappeared on 3 March. Her body was recovered from woodland near Ashford in Kent, about 20 miles west of Couzens’ home, seven days later.
The Met said it held an accelerated hearing as quickly as possible after Couzens’ guilty plea and conviction on 9 July. During the 20-minute court case, Lord Justice Fulford discussed the possibility of a whole-life order as he adjourned sentencing until 29 September.
The police watchdog has received numerous referrals relating to the Couzens case, with 12 officers being investigated.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating whether the Met failed to investigate two allegations of indecent exposure relating to Couzens in February, just days before the killing. Kent police is also being investigated over their response to a third allegation of indecent exposure in 2015.
The Met said that Ball, after consultation with authorities including the Crown Prosecution Service, had decided the misconduct hearing should be heard in private.
The force said the need for transparency in misconduct proceedings was “significantly outweighed” by the risk of interfering with criminal proceedings.
Having considered the representations put forward, Ball decided that there remained a “real risk” of undermining the criminal case despite Couzens’ guilty pleas, it added.
Source: The Guardian