How was Sarah Everard murderer Wayne Couzens allowed to join the police?

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Wayne Couzens’ predatory sexual behaviour began 20 years earlier than he raped and murdered Sarah Everard and he ought to by no means have been allowed to join the police, a damning inquiry has discovered.

Police chiefs admitted Ms Everard’s dying in 2021 at the palms of a serving Metropolitan Police officer was “one the darkest days in police history” as a stunning report uncovered the scale of failures in recruiting the monster and eight missed possibilities to cease him in his tracks.

A two-year unbiased inquiry has uncovered allegations that Couzens dedicated a really severe sexual assault towards a toddler who was barely in her teenagers earlier than his policing profession even began.

Lady Elish Angiolini’s inquiry uncovered proof of a number of different sexual assaults by Couzens and he or she fears there could also be much more victims.

In a damning collection of revelations, it emerged that:

After the report was revealed on Thursday, Lady Elish advised The Independent of her shock at the scale of the failures, warning there could possibly be one other Couzens hidden in plain sight.

“I thought there would be initial failures, but to see them peppered throughout the period was quite shocking,” she stated.

She referred to as for the authorities and police chiefs to urgently take into account 16 suggestions she has made for reform, including it’s “absolutely critical to the future of policing”.

Couzens was additionally accused of raping a lady at a singles evening in east London between 2006 and 2007 and an additional alleged rape beneath a bridge in the capital in 2019. Both victims got here ahead after Couzens was arrested, however no additional motion was taken due to “evidential difficulties”.

Another complainant got here ahead to say that Couzens had assaulted a person wearing drag at a bar in Kent in the summer time of 2019 and invited him to carry out a intercourse act outdoors.

The long-awaited 350-page report additionally detailed his “diverse and deviant” sexual pursuits, with proof he confirmed mates and colleagues violent pornography and on not less than two events shared unsolicited photos of his genitals with younger girls.

Lady Elish additionally discovered Couzens, who’s alleged to have possessed indecent photographs of kids, paid feminine on-line retailers to masturbate into garments and ship them to him.

The inquiry has referred to as for a radical overhaul of police vetting and recruitment after discovering repeated failures to spot purple flags, permitting three separate police forces to allow him to serve.

It has additionally referred to as for a basic change to how police reply to indecent publicity after repeated incidents linked to Couzens weren’t correctly investigated.

The inquiry discovered eight events by which incidents of alleged indecent publicity had been reported to police between 2008 and 2021 – prior to Ms Everard’s homicide – however not one led to his arrest and prosecution. An extra incident, courting to 2004, was reported after her dying.

Lady Elish stated: “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 in the past as she was strolling house in Clapham, south London.

The horrifying crime shocked the nation and led to a widespread outpouring of grief, thrusting problems with police corruption and violence towards girls and women into the highlight.

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.

“Her death, and the public discourse it caused, should galvanise those responsible for policing to make sure something like this can never happen again.”

Responding to the report in a uncommon assertion, Ms Everard’s devastated household stated it was “obvious” that Couzens ought to by no means have been a police officer.

“Whilst holding a position of trust, in reality he was a serial sex offender. Warning signs were overlooked throughout his career and opportunities to confront him were missed,” the household stated.

“We believe that Sarah died because he was a police officer – she would never have got into a stranger’s car.”

The assertion from Sue, Jeremy, Katie and James Everard paid tribute to Sarah, a advertising and marketing govt, forward of the third anniversary of her dying on Sunday.

“We no longer wait for her call; we no longer expect to see her. We know she won’t be there at family gatherings. But the desperate longing to have her with us pervades every part of our lives,” they stated.

The unbiased inquiry, commissioned by former house secretary Priti Patel, units out 16 key suggestions to authorities and policing leaders to forestall different officers from abusing their place of belief in “such a heinous way” once more.

It was discovered that Couzens fastidiously managed the impression he gave of himself to individuals, “manipulated information” on utility types and solely shared his callous views of ladies with a really small group of “like-minded” individuals.

Couzens efficiently utilized to grow to be a particular constable at Kent Police in 2006, regardless of having failed vetting two years earlier when he utilized to be an everyday officer.

The report discovered the pressure’s recruitment insurance policies had been utilized inconsistently after the vetting was carried out by two totally different groups. He labored as a particular with Kent Police till he resigned in 2010.

He then moved to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary in 2011 and went on to be authorised as a firearms officer, however the report discovered that he shouldn’t have been allowed to join due to his troubled funds.

At the time of his recruitment, Thames Valley Police, to whom the CNC outsourced vetting, really useful he shouldn’t go as a result of he had a monetary authorized settlement to keep away from chapter – referred to as an Individual Voluntary Arrangement – however this advice was not adopted.

His preliminary vetting to join the Met in 2018 was additionally flawed after the consequence of a Police National Database verify was recorded as “no trace” regardless of him being reported lacking in 2013 and his automotive being linked to an incident of indecent publicity in 2015.

This was missed but once more when he utilized to function an authorised firearms officer with the pressure the following yr.

Couzens – who won’t ever be launched from jail – went on to use his information and police powers to falsely arrest Ms Everard for breaching lockdown restrictions, earlier than raping and dumping her strangled physique in a woodland close to Ashford.

Shockingly – even after he was uncovered as a killer – the Met advised the inquiry in 2022 they might nonetheless have recruited him in the event that they had been offered the identical info once more.

“I found this astonishing,” Lady Elish stated. “I make a number of recommendations to improve recruitment and vetting – covering everything from in-person interviews, and home visits for new recruits, to improvements for information sharing around transfers.”

Lady Elish added that allegations of indecent publicity had been handled as “low level” by investigating officers.

In 2015 somebody reported to Kent Police a person driving Couzens’ automotive whereas indecently exposing himself. An extra report was made a few “masturbatory incident” in the direction of a bike owner down a slender nation lane in 2020.

Just days earlier than he kidnapped Ms Everard, he was reported for exposing himself at a drive-through in London. Then-Met police constable Samantha Lee was sacked and barred from being a police officer after it was discovered she had not correctly investigated the incidents.

The report additionally famous the police working setting “did nothing to discourage his misogynistic view of women”, which allowed his deviant behaviour outdoors work to flourish.

Anna Birley, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, which staged a high-profile vigil in the wake of Ms Everard’s homicide, stated it is going to be tough for ladies to belief police till the inquiry’s suggestions are embraced by the authorities.

She advised The Independent: “Misogyny still thrives within policing culture, warning signs are missed and dangerous men operate in positions of authority in plain sight.

“The report is a grim read, and Lady Elish has done a thoughtful and thorough job but until the home secretary makes the inquiry and its findings statutory I don’t trust that the necessary reforms will be implemented.

“Until then, it will be difficult for women to trust that there are not predators among the ranks of the people tasked with keeping them safe.”

Deputy chief Maggie Blyth, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on violence towards girls and women, described Ms Everard’s homicide as certainly one of the “darkest days in police history”.

“What followed was a watershed moment,” she added.

While Sir Mark stated the pressure was working “step by step” to drive up requirements and restore belief in policing, he admitted the report lays naked the “very low base that we are starting from”.

Kent Police has apologised for failing to correctly examine when Couzens was reported for indecent publicity in 2015, including it absolutely accepts the report’s suggestions.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper stated the inquiry had uncovered “a catalogue of appalling failures”. The shadow house secretary added: “Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer, he should have been stopped and he could have been stopped from being a police officer.

“It is truly appalling his history of alleged sexual offending stretches back so many years and yet opportunities to investigate were repeatedly missed, and most disturbing of all, Lady Angiolini says there is nothing to stop another Wayne Couzens operating in plain sight.”

Home secretary James Cleverly stated Ms Everard’s homicide was an act of “pure evil” however insisted it’s not a mirrored image of the majority of devoted cops.

He stated the authorities will “thoroughly” take into account the suggestions, including: “In the three years since, a root and stem clean-up of the policing workforce has been underway and we have made huge strides – as well as making tackling violence against women and girls a national policing priority to be treated on a par with terrorism.

“But we will continue to do everything in our power to protect women and girls. I am grateful to Lady Elish for her meticulous investigation. Her insights will be invaluable as we move forward in supporting our police to build forces of the highest standards of integrity and regain the trust of the British public.”