Wayne Couzens’ predatory sexual behaviour started 20 years before he raped and murdered Sarah Everard and he should never have been allowed to join the police, a damning inquiry has found.
Police chiefs admitted Ms Everard’s death in 2021 at the hands of a serving Metropolitan Police officer was “one the darkest days in police history” as a shocking report uncovered the scale of failures in recruiting the monster and eight missed chances to stop him in his tracks.
A two-year independent inquiry has uncovered allegations that Couzens committed a very serious sexual assault against a child who was barely in her teens before his policing career even started.
Lady Elish Angiolini’s inquiry uncovered evidence of multiple other sexual attacks by Couzens and she fears there may be even more victims.
In a damning series of revelations, it emerged that:
After the report was published on Thursday, Lady Elish told The Independent of her shock at the scale of the failures, warning there could be another Couzens hidden in plain sight.
“I thought there would be initial failures, but to see them peppered throughout the period was quite shocking,” she said.
She called for the government and police chiefs to urgently consider 16 recommendations she has made for reform, adding it is “absolutely critical to the future of policing”.
Couzens was also accused of raping a woman at a singles night in east London between 2006 and 2007 and a further alleged rape under a bridge in the capital in 2019. Both victims came forward after Couzens was arrested, but no further action was taken due to “evidential difficulties”.
Another complainant came forward to say that Couzens had assaulted a man dressed in drag at a bar in Kent in the summer of 2019 and invited him to perform a sex act outside.
The long-awaited 350-page report also detailed his “diverse and deviant” sexual interests, with evidence he showed friends and colleagues violent pornography and on at least two occasions shared unsolicited pictures of his genitals with young women.
Lady Elish also found Couzens, who is alleged to have possessed indecent images of children, paid female online retailers to masturbate into clothes and send them to him.
The inquiry has called for a radical overhaul of police vetting and recruitment after finding repeated failures to spot red flags, allowing three separate police forces to permit him to serve.
It has also called for a fundamental change to how police respond to indecent exposure after repeated incidents linked to Couzens were not properly investigated.
The inquiry found eight occasions in which incidents of alleged indecent exposure were reported to police between 2008 and 2021 – prior to Ms Everard’s murder – but not one led to his arrest and prosecution. A further incident, dating to 2004, was reported after her death.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force was working “step by step” to drive up standards and restore trust in policing
Lady Elish said: “Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer. And, without a significant overhaul, there is nothing to stop another Wayne Couzens operating in plain sight.”
Couzens was a serving Metropolitan Police officer when he kidnapped, raped and murdered Ms Everard, 33, three years ago as she was walking home in Clapham, south London.
The horrifying crime shocked the nation and led to a widespread outpouring of grief, thrusting issues of police corruption and violence against women and girls into the spotlight.
Lady Elish added: “I would urge all those in authority in every police force to read this and take immediate action. Sarah’s parents and loved ones live in the perpetual grief and pain of having lost Sarah in this way.
Sarah Everard’s family said Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer
Police missed eight chances to stop Wayne Couzens before he murdered Sarah Everard
