Sarah Everard (Wayne Couzens)
Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens kidnapped, raped, and murdered Sarah Everard while she walked home in London. He used his police credentials to make a false arrest. Sentenced to whole life.
On the evening of March 3, 2021, Sarah Everard, 33, was walking home from a friend's house in Clapham, South London. She was kidnapped by Wayne Couzens, a serving Metropolitan Police officer, who used his warrant card to conduct a fake arrest under COVID lockdown regulations.
Couzens drove Sarah to Kent where he raped and strangled her. He burned her body and placed the remains in a pond in an area of woodland.
CCTV footage and automatic number plate recognition tracked Couzens's hire car. He was arrested on March 9 and Sarah's remains were found the following day.
Couzens was convicted and sentenced to a whole-life order in September 2021—only the rare fourth whole-life sentence given to a police officer. The case sparked massive protests about women's safety and police accountability.
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