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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent

Police should never have employed Wayne Couzens, report finds

People hold up their phone torches with a line of police officers facing them
People turn on their phone torches in Clapham Common at a vigil in 2021 for Sarah Everard who was murdered by Wayne Couzens. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Sarah Everard’s family have said she was kidnapped and murdered by Wayne Couzens because he was armed with police powers he should never have had, after an official report revealed new and damning failures by police who missed his prolific sexual offending dating back almost 20 years.

The failures laid out in the report by Lady Elish Angiolini are worse than previously thought, and she concludes Couzens should never have been a police officer. She highlighted a series of chances to spot his danger to women and his unsuitability to be an officer that were missed by repeated bungling in three forces.

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