Clear chances missed to identify Wayne Couzens as danger to women

Police missed clear chances to identify Wayne Couzens as a potential sex offender and a danger to women before he kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard, it can finally be revealed.

He exposed himself three times, with witnesses recording either full registration details of vehicles he used, or partial details. But police took no action, leaving Couzens to continue as a serving Metropolitan police officer entrusted with a gun.

On 27 February 2021, six days before Everard’s kidnap, rape and murder, Couzens exposed himself at a fast-food drive-through restaurant on the London and Kent border.

Staff reported the incident to the Met, with the full car registration and details from the credit card he paid for food with. The car he was in, a black Seat, was registered to him.

Police can check car registration details from a desk via a computer linked to the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Such checks are regarded in policing as basic, a senior Met officer accepted. The Guardian understands that police did not go to the drive-through restaurant until 3 March, the day Couzens kidnapped Everard.

Couzens was charged with a string of indecent exposure offences after his conviction for Everard’s murder, with court proceedings covered by tight reporting restrictions so he could get a fair trial.

On Monday, Couzens unexpectedly pleaded guilty to three offences of indecent exposure, with other charges left on file. This means reporting restrictions were lifted and details of the missed opportunities can finally be reported.

The police watchdog is expected on Tuesday to announce a decision on any disciplinary action following the incidents involving Couzens before he murdered Everard.

In the earliest reported potential missed opportunity, in Dover in June 2015, Kent police were passed full details of a car that Couzens was alleged to have been using when a couple out with their two-year-old child saw a man exposing himself. Kent police took no action.

In a ruling from a pre-trial hearing, Mrs Justice May wrote: “The first offence dates from June 2015 when [name of witness] driving with his wife and two-year-old along London Road in Dover called in to Kent police to report a man in a car which they had just passed driving along with his erect penis exposed.

“[Name of witness] took the registration number of the car which he gave to police at the time. There appears to have been no further investigation.” Couzens pleaded not guilty to that charge.

Another incident happened in November 2020, in Deal, Kent, four months before Couzens kidnapped Everard, using his police warrant card to lull her into a false sense of security.

May wrote: “A woman was bicycling home along a narrow country lane up a hill past a wooded area. On her account, as she cycled past the wooded bit a man stepped out on to the bank above her, very close as it was a narrow lane, totally naked, masturbating his erect penis, looking straight at her as he did so.

“She was scared and shaken and could do nothing but cycle past, up the hill, as fast as she was able. She noticed a black car parked 50 metres further on and recalled a partial numberplate.”

Later inquiries found, via automatic number plate recognition and cell site analysis on his mobile phone, that Couzens’ phone and car were in the area at the time. He pleaded guilty to that charge on Monday.

Couzens, who is serving a whole-life sentence, was an officer in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection group, the same unit as the serial rapist David Carrick, who was jailed last week. The Met insists the two officers did not work together and there was no evidence that they knew each other.

Dabaleena Dasgupta, of the Centre of Women’s Justice, said: “With Carrick last week and Couzens today, it is clear that police officers accused of misogynistic crimes are not being tackled, with the inevitable consequence of their behaviour escalating into greater tragedy.

“These cases are extreme and high-profile, but we have spoken with hundreds of women who are victims of police-perpetrated abuse who have similar stories of their reports being dismissed out of hand.”

A government-backed inquiry into the Couzens scandal is expected to report this summer.

After the conclusion of Monday’s case, the Met said: “On 28 February 2021, the Met received an allegation of exposure at a location in Swanley, Kent. This was recorded and passed to a local officer to investigate.

“By the time of Sarah Everard’s kidnap, on 3 March 2021, the investigation was not concluded and Couzens’ occupation had not been identified.”

The guilty pleas on Monday came during an Old Bailey hearing in which Couzens’ legal team had been expected to apply to have the charges dismissed. But Jim Sturman KC, defending, told the court that the application would not be made.

Instead, Couzens proceeded to plead guilty to three counts of indecent exposure between November 2020 and February 2021. Dressed in a prison-issue grey sweatshirt, the 50-year-old entered the pleas via video link from Frankland high-security prison in County Durham.

He admitted exposing himself at a drive-through restaurant in Kent on two occasions, on 14 and 27 February 2021, just days before he abducted Everard. He also pleaded guilty to exposing himself to the cyclist in woodland in Deal on 13 November 2020.

As well as pleading not guilty to driving with the lower half of his body exposed in Dover on 9 June 2015, Couzens had previously pleaded not guilty to two other charges of indecent exposure at the same drive-through restaurant in Kent between 22 January and 1 February 2021, and 30 January and 6 February 2021.

The Old Bailey heard that the three remaining counts would not be pursued by the prosecution and would be left on his file. The prosecutor, Jocelyn Ledward, said it was no longer in the public interest to seek a trial on the remaining counts.

Ruth Davison, of Refuge, said: “The details that have emerged today show further serious failings by the Metropolitan police to protect women and girls.

“Today Wayne Couzens pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent exposure. His car number plate was given to Met police officers, who should have carried out the correct checks to identify him as a serial sex offender and working within the force. He should have been immediately suspended from duty and investigated.

“Instead this didn’t happen and he was free, just days later, to escalate his behaviour and murder Sarah Everard using his status as a police officer, utilising handcuffs and his warrant card to coerce Sarah into getting into a car with him.”

Couzens will be sentenced on 6 March.