Sarah Everard

Case background and investigation

Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, was walking home from a friend's house near Clapham Common to her home in Brixton Hill on the evening of March 3, 2021, during England's third COVID-19 lockdown, according to Wikipedia and City A.M. She was last recorded on CCTV on Poynders Road at about 9:28 p.m.

Minutes later, Wayne Couzens, then 48 and a serving Metropolitan Police constable attached to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, showed her his warrant card, handcuffed her and put her into a hired car, according to Wikipedia. The Irish Times, reporting on the later appeal, said he used his warrant card and handcuffs to carry out a false arrest under lockdown rules. He drove her to Kent, where he raped and murdered her.

Couzens was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, on March 9, 2021. Human remains were found in woodland near Ashford, Kent, on March 10 and were identified as Everard's through dental records on March 12, the day Couzens was charged with kidnapping and murder, according to Wikipedia. The cause of death was given as compression of the neck. He pleaded guilty to kidnap and rape on June 8, 2021, and to murder on July 9, 2021.

On September 30, 2021, Lord Justice Fulford sentenced Couzens to life imprisonment with a whole-life order, meaning he will never be eligible for release. City A.M. reported that the judge found no evidence of genuine contrition. According to the Irish Times, it was the first whole-life sentence imposed for the single murder of an adult not connected to terrorism. On July 29, 2022, the Court of Appeal, led by Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, refused to reduce the sentence. Wikipedia reports that in 2023 Couzens also pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent exposure committed in 2020 and 2021.

The case led to vigils and protests about violence against women and to scrutiny of policing. The Angiolini Inquiry, set up to examine how Couzens was able to serve as an officer, published its Part 1 report on February 29, 2024, with 16 recommendations on police recruitment, vetting and the handling of indecent exposure reports, according to the inquiry's website. Wikipedia notes that the Metropolitan Police's handling of a March 13, 2021 vigil on Clapham Common was later found by the High Court to have been unlawful.