A former constable with the Metropolitan Police told a female colleague “I hope you get Wayne Couzened” in what was believed to be a reference to the murder of Sarah Everard, a misconduct panel has found.
Michael Needham, who was based with the force’s North West command unit, also allegedly told his colleague, identified only as Pc X, that he would “rape” and “annihilate” her, the police misconduct hearing heard.
Mr Needham made the alleged remarks while off-duty at a pub in London in early 2025, the panel was told.
It was alleged that he told his colleague: “I’ll rape you, I’ll pin you down and annihilate you. You know I’m stronger than you, don’t you? You do know that, don’t you?”
The officer told the panel that she “froze” and turned her back on him.
Later that evening, Mr Needham allegedly told Pc X “I hope you get Wayne Couzened on the way home”, which she believed was a reference to Ms Everard’s killer.
Ms Everard, 33, was raped and murdered by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in south London on 3 March 2021.
Couzens, who was given a whole-life jail term at the end of his Old Bailey trial in September 2021, tricked Ms Everard into thinking that she could be arrested for breaking Covid lockdown rules as she walked home from a friend’s house.
Mr Needham “consistently denied that he said the words alleged, or anything like them that could have been misheard or misinterpreted”, the panel wrote in its finding.
The comments were not heard by other colleagues who were there, it was said.
But the panel found on the “balance of probabilities” that both incidents took place as Pc X alleged.
It wrote: “Former Pc Needham has behaved in a manner while off duty that is liable to bring discredit on the police service or undermine public confidence in policing.
“We consider that a victim reporting a sexual assault, or involved in a relationship where they were subject to coercive and controlling behaviour, would have little confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service if they knew of this conduct.
“Further, his language towards Pc X was abusive, oppressive, harassing, bullying and offensive.”
It added: “We consider that a fully informed member of the public would have considered former Pc Needham’s behaviour to have been egregious.
“Wayne Couzens, as a police officer who abused his position to commit the most serious offences of rape and murder, has become a byword for what can happen if serving officers can or are perceived to behave with impunity.”
The panel ruled that Mr Needham would have been dismissed if he was still serving and that he will be added to the College of Policing barred list.
He was criminally investigated over the remarks but no further action was taken, the panel wrote.
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