London police officer Wayne Couzens faces life sentence for Sarah Everard murder

The violent murder of Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, by a serving police officer stunned a nation and sparked an outcry over women’s safety and gender-based violence.

On Thursday, with the face of Everard appearing on many of the front pages of British newspapers, questions were being asked about how the police could have let Couzens “slip through the net.”

Couzens joined the London Metropolitan Police in 2018 and most recently worked for the force’s elite Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection squad — which included work at the U.S. Embassy.

Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party and also a former director of public prosecutions, said that there were “warning signs” and that it was essential to establish how Couzens wasn’t detected earlier.

Speaking to LBC Radio, Starmer said: “That is the key issue: how did he slip through the net? There were obviously warning signs, so how did he get through?”

Three days before he abducted Everard, Couzens was accused of indecent exposure at a McDonald’s in south London. The police watchdog is examining claims that the Metropolitan Police failed to properly investigate the allegations.

The Metropolitan Police were expected to issue an apology on Thursday. The day before, they tweeted that they were “sickened, angered & devastated by his crimes” and that they would comment further after the hearing was over.

Since 2009, at least 16 serving or former police officers in Britain have killed women, according to Femicide Census, an organization that collects information on men’s violence against women.

Couzens has pleaded guilty to his charges, but while murder in Britain carries a mandatory life sentence, it doesn’t automatically mean life behind bars. Judge Adrian Fulford will decide on Thursday whether to issue a “whole life order,” the most serious punishment he could issue that would mean that, in all likelihood, Couzens would die in prison.

Prosecutor Tom Little said there was a “significant degree of planning and premeditating” by “a serving police officer, using his office knowledge and equipment, including warrant card and handcuffs and police belt, to commit the offenses.”

On Wednesday, the start of a two-day sentencing hearing, the Old Bailey court heard horrific details about Everard’s kidnap, rape and murder.

On the night of March 3, Couzens circled London in a rental car to “hunt” for a lone woman, according to the prosecution. A court was shown chilling surveillance-camera footage of Couzens holding out his left hand at Everard, which the prosecution said was him showing her his warrant card. They said he then handcuffed and falsely arrested Everared for breaching covid restrictions.

The prosecution said, after a long journey, he likely raped her in the car before strangling her with his police belt. He later burned her body and dumped it in green bags in a pond near land that he owned.

The prosecution argued that the murder was premeditated and was weeks in the making.

Sarah’s parents and sister gave emotional statements in court.

Her mother, Susan, told the court that every night she tries to warn her daughter not to trust him and get in the car.

“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!”

Her mom said that, “we’ve kept her dressing gown, it still smells of that, and I hug that, instead of her.”

The BBC, Britain’s state broadcaster, had an actor read out her statement in full on the radio on Thursday morning.