LONDON, Oct 1 — The UK government today insisted it backed the chief of London’s police force even as questions mounted about how it missed opportunities that could have prevented horrific crimes by a serving officer.
Wayne Couzens, 48, was yesterday jailed for the rest of his life after falsely arresting Sarah Everard on the pretence she had broken coronavirus restrictions, before raping and murdering her.
The 33-year-old marketing executive’s abduction in south London in March triggered nationwide anguish and debate about the safety of women and girls.
The Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest force, issued a lengthy statement after the rare whole-life sentence was handed down, vowing changes and admitting to possible lapses in how Couzens was vetted.
It confirmed that it had been investigating an allegation of indecent exposure some 72 hours before Everard was abducted, which had linked Couzens’ car to the scene of the incident outside a McDonald’s in Kent, southeast England.
Assistant Met Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said also that a vetting check was not carried out “correctly” on Couzens when he joined the Met in 2018, linking him to another indecent exposure case in Kent in 2015.
But the Met denied knowing that in his previous job with Britain’s civil nuclear police force, Couzens was known to colleagues as “the rapist” because of his hostility to women.
Resignation calls
The Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog is meanwhile investigating the conduct of five Met officers over allegations they sent discriminatory messages over WhatsApp.
The Times newspaper reported the officers are alleged to have shared misogynistic, racist and homophobic material with Couzens in the months before he killed Everard.
Policing minister Kit Malthouse conceded that the case had struck a “devastating blow to the confidence that people have in police officers”.
The Met’s statement took the extraordinary step of advising the public to, in the last resort, run away from a police officer if they suspect him of behaving unlawfully.
But despite the litany of apparent failures, and numerous other scandals that have dogged the London police in recent years, Malthouse said the government still backed Met Commissioner Cressida Dick.
“She is a dedicated and talented and committed police officer who is driving the Metropolitan Police to ever greater standards of care and improvement and fighting crime,” he told Sky News.
Nevertheless, the government would “hold the police to account about what went wrong, how this monster slipped through the net to become a police officer, how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again”.
Dick yesterday said Couzens had “brought shame” on the force. “His actions were a gross betrayal of everything policing stands for,” she added, vowing to learn lessons.
Prior to being dismissed in July when he pleaded guilty, Couzens served with the Met’s elite diplomatic protection unit.
The force has also come under fire for repeatedly referring to Couzens as a “former” officer, overlooking that he was still in service when he brandished his warrant card at Everard and handcuffed her.
‘Institutionally misogynistic’
Parm Sandhu, an ex-chief superintendent with the Met, decried the force’s “very sexist and misogynistic” culture.
Former Nottinghamshire Police chief constable Sue Fish went further, telling Times Radio that British policing was “institutionally misogynistic” across the country.
Sandhu told BBC radio that she had been “vilified” after reporting an incident involving a male colleague.
Women officers feared the worst if they reported inappropriate behaviour by their male peers, she said.
“What happens is that male police officers will then close ranks and the fear that most women police officers have got is that when you are calling for help, you press that emergency button or your radio, they’re not going to turn up and you’re going to get kicked in the street.”
The whole-life jail term means Couzens joins 60 other of Britain’s most dangerous criminals who will die behind bars.
Everard’s family said they were relieved at the severity of the sentence. “The world is a safer place with him imprisoned,” they added. — AFP
