By Lucy Caulkett-
Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick on Friday has spoken of how a murder cop betrayed the police force, and that the murder of Sarah Everard has “sickened, angered and devastated” London’s policing community.
Speaking outside the Old Bailey in the wake of PC Wayne Couzens’ guilty plea to murder, Dame Cressida said the Royal Protection officer had “betrayed” his colleagues.
Ms Cressida Dick says she has told the family of Sarah Everard “how very sorry I’m am for their loss, for their pain and their suffering”.
The Commissioner, who was in court to hear the guilty plea, spoke to members of Ms Everard’s family on Friday morning.
“My thoughts and those of everyone in the Met Police are with Sarah’s loved ones. It is not possible for any of us to begin imagining what they been going through”, she said.
“I was able to speak to them earlier today, and I say again how very sorry I am for their loss and for their pain and suffering.
“All of us in the Met are sickened, angered and devastated by this man’s crimes. They are dreadful. Everyone in policing feels betrayed.”
Kidnap
Couzens kidnapped Ms Everard on March 3 as she walked home through south London, driving her in a hired car to the Kent coast.
He transferred the 33-year-old marketing executive to his own vehicle, raping and murdering her at some point before her body was discovered in Kent woodland on March 10.
Couzens offered police a string of lies about the kidnapping, claiming he had been pressured into it by Eastern European gangsters and suggesting he had not been involved in the killing.
But he admitted kidnap and rape last month, and today confessed in court to the murder.
Paying tribute to Ms Everard, Dame Cressida said: “Sarah was a fantastic, talented young woman with her whole life ahead of her, and that has been snatched away.
“She was hugely loved and she will be sorely missed by so very many people.
“Ever since Sarah went missing, the sole priority of my investigation team, the search team, and hundreds of others in the Met and beyond was to find Sarah and to bring the person who had committed these terrible crimes to justice, as swiftly as we possibly could.
“In this, we are hugely indebted to Sarah’s family and to her friends and many members of the public who helped the investigation in every single way they could, not least by making appeals and giving us information.
“No words could adequately express the profound sadness and anger and regret that everyone in the Met, my police service, feels about what happened to Sarah.
“Today, as with every other day, our thoughts are with Sarah, with her family, and with her loved ones, and they always will be.”
Murdered: Sarah Everard Image: PA Media
The senior police officer did not name Couzens in her statement, and did not stop to answer questions from journalists outside the Old Bailey.
Jamie Klingler, one of the founders of the Reclaim These Streets movement which was established after Ms Everard’s death, today called on the government to do more to protect women’s safety.
“We have had enough and we want to see real change,” she said. “We want the government to make it a major issue.”
Scotland Yard’s lead investigator in the murder inquiry had to apologise to the court earlier in proceedings after a press release was issued by the Met, revealing that Ms Everard had been strangled.
“This was done before the material had even been considered by the reviewing lawyer, the court and the defence”, said prosecutor Tom Little QC, as the judge, Lord Justice Fulford, called the incident “undesirable”.
Investigation
An investigation is also underway into how Couzens was suspected of indecent exposure three days before the kidnapping, but continued to work for the force and carry a firearm. Such misconduct with impunity is typical of the British police, especially at lower levels of unproven misconduct.
The police inaction following the indecent exposure by Couzens may call for disciplinary action, as it exposes weak levels of accountability in the police force as far as misconduct is concerned.
Lord Justice Fulford suggested he will consider a possible whole life term for Couzens when he passes sentence in Septemb
The firearms officer snatched her as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham on 3 March, driving her away in a car he had hired.
The 33-year-old’s body was found a week later in woodland near Ashford, Kent, metres from land owned by Couzens. She had been raped and strangled.
Couzens, 48, will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 29 September.
“Sarah was a fantastic, talented young woman with her whole life ahead of her and that has been snatched away.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said on Friday that a total of 12 gross misconduct or misconduct notices had so far been served on police officers from multiple forces in relation to the Couzens case, including about the handling of two separate claims that Couzens had indecently exposed himself.
On the night Ms Everard was snatched, she and Couzens were seen on camera standing by his hire car.
It was parked on the pavement with its hazard lights flashing.