Wayne Couzens is serving a whole life prison sentence for the kidnap, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard
(Picture: Met Police )Notorious killer Wayne Couzens complained about being repeatedly dubbed a “murderer” and a “rapist” as he tried to dodge a trial for indecent exposing himself to women.
The former Met Police PC is serving a whole life prison sentence for the kidnap, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard as she walked home through south London.
But months into his sentence, the Crown Prosecution Service decided to charge Couzens with a series of flashing incidents, including some in the weeks before Ms Everard’s murder.
Details of Couzens’ attempts to dodge those charges can now be revealed in full, after the disgraced former police officer admitted three incidents.
Putting forward his argument last November, defence barrister Jim Surman KC complained of worldwide media attention on Couzens’ murder and rape convictions, in media organisations including the New York Times, CNN and even Cosmopolitan magazine.
“How on earth can Wayne Couzens receive a fair trial when the jury knows about his background?”, he asked, pointing to “wave after wave of repeated publicity”.
Mr Sturman argued Couzens would face “overwhelming prejudice” at an indecent exposure trial, saying: “It is a unique case, almost impossible to find a jury who doesn’t know Wayne Couzens is the man who admitted the murder and associated offences in relation to Sarah Everard.”
The barrister said claims that Couzens had the police nickname “The Rapist” were unsubstantiated, arguing this is “the sort of material seeps into the public consciousness”.
He highlighted Labour leader Keir Starmer’s mention of the alleged nickname, complaining: “Possibly the future Prime Minister himself has fallen for this myth.”
Mr Justice May rejected Couzens’ attempt for the indecent exposure charges to be stayed as an abuse of process, following a day of legal argument at the Old Bailey.
She accepted Couzens’ name is now “a by-word for violent sexual offending by men against women”, saying: “Publicity surrounding the terrible events of Sarah Everard’s killing has been intense, at times lurid and sensational, occasionally wild and inaccurate, always redolent of the revulsion and horror that the offences against Sarah Everard rightly evoke.
“I accept Mr Sturman’s submission that the coverage has been exceptional, that his client’s name is as a result notorious, forever linked to an horrific sexual killing, and that very few people, if any, could be found to serve on a jury who had not heard or read of the Sarah Everard case.
“I also accept that the time which has passed since sentence last year appears to have done little to mute or even diminish very much the press interest in the case, which resurges at any opportunity.
“But where I part company with Mr Sturman is in his submission that the fact that most if not all jurors will have knowledge of the Sarah Everard case of itself renders any future trial on these charges unfair.
“I do not share his view that jurors would not, or could not, set aside their knowledge of what happened to Sarah Everard when considering whether the defendant did as alleged in this case.”
She decided a jury could be trusted to fairly try Couzens over the indecent exposure charges.
Following Couzens’ guilty pleas, the legal argument can now be reported – as well as the other ways the former officer’s name has been kept out of the public domain while the indecent exposure case progressed.
In the case of David Carrick, a Met Police officer who admitted a horrific catalogue of rape and abuse of women, a reporting restriction was initially imposed to ban any mention of Couzens or the fact both he and Carrick served in the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command.
Carrick, who is now serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 32 years, was nicknamed ‘Bastard Dave’ and used his status as a police officer to keep his victims silent.
The court order on Carrick’s case was later lifted, but the Attorney General issued a stern warning that nothing should be reported that might prejudice Couzens’ upcoming trial.
The killer officer was also airbrushed out of the criminal trial of PCs Jonathan Cobban and Joel Borders, over a sickening WhatsApp group they shared with Couzens.
The officers had swapped homophobic, racist and misogynistic remarks on the social media app, but Couzens could not be named as one of the active participants in the group.
Reporting restrictions have now been lifted following Couzens’ guilty pleas to flashing at female takeaway staff and standing naked and masturbating while a female cyclist went past.
He is due to be sentenced on March 6.
