Sarah Everard’s life “could have been saved” if police had acted on reports of Wayne Couzens exposing himself, one of his victims has said.
Couzens, a Metropolitan police firearms officer, flashed the woman at a fast food drive-through restaurant just four days before he abducted, raped and murdered Everard on 3 March 2021.
The woman alerted her manager and they reported the incident to the Met the day after, providing Couzens’ vehicle registration details and his credit card number.
Fighting back tears, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the Old Bailey: “This indecent exposure incident was reported on the Sunday. I had no one contact me or ask for a statement. It was only after Sarah’s murder that I became involved. If he had been held accountable when we had reported the crime, we could have saved Sarah.”
Couzens, who appeared at the Old Bailey via video link from Frankland prison, was sentenced to 19 months for three incidents of indecent exposure committed in the months before he murdered Everard, 33.
The sentencing came as the policing watchdog released a series of disturbing messages sent by Couzens, in which he joked about rape and made racist remarks, in a WhatsApp group with other police officers.
Two of the indecent exposure incidents occurred at the same fast food restaurant on the London and Kent border in February 2021. He also exposed himself and performed a sex act in front of a female cyclist in a country lane in Kent in November 2020 when he was supposed to be on duty, working from home. All three incidents were reported to the police.
In a televised hearing, the judge, Mrs Justice May, said the sentencing would not affect the whole-life term Couzens, 50, is serving for Everard’s murder, but that it served as a “public recognition” of the offences and the impact on the victims.
The judge also drew attention to the Met’s failure to track down Couzens, saying: “The fact that no police came to find him or his black car, to question him about these incidents, can only have served to confirm and strengthen, in the defendant’s mind, a dangerous belief in his invincibility, in his power sexually to dominate and abuse women without being stopped.”
She said Couzens could “easily have been traced”, adding: “The incidents were reported to the police on 28 February 2021, together with the registration number of the car. Again nothing was done at the time. Sarah Everard was taken three days later on 3 March 2021.”
Tom Little KC set out the details of the first offence, saying Couzens had stood naked before a female cyclist in Ringwould Road near Dover on 13 November 2020.
“The defendant was totally naked. He was masturbating his exposed penis and did so whilst he was looking at [the victim],” he said. The woman reported the incident to Kent police, providing a description of Couzens and a partial number plate.
In a victim impact statement, the woman told the court she was being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder due to Couzens’s “monstrous acts”.
She added: “Four months after you exposed yourself to me, you raped and murdered an innocent woman. There were opportunities to identify you and they were not taken. I did not feel that, when I reported your crime, it was taken as seriously as I felt that it should have been. The horror of what happened will remain with me for the rest of my life.”
She said some police forces did not take indecent exposure seriously enough, saying: “Your behaviour, and the subsequent failure by Kent police, have seriously eroded my confidence in the police generally.”
The court heard that Couzens was not on duty at the time of the second offence on 14 February 2021, but that he briefly visited his Metropolitan police base in Lillie Road, west London after leaving his home in Deal, Kent at about 8.20pm.
From there, he drove to the fast food restaurant and exposed his erect penis to a woman who handed him a coffee and a double cheeseburger. A manager was informed and the incident was reported to police on 28 February.
The victim said she “felt sick” when she saw pictures of Couzens in the press after his arrest. She described feelings of “survivor’s guilt”, saying: “I could not help but feel relieved that it wasn’t me, or that it could have been me.”
She said her view of the police had “altered significantly”, saying: “I do not like to tar everyone with the same brush but it has been difficult not to do so after knowing what he did for a living and knowing I could have come across him in uniform and not known what he was capable of.”
On the last occasion on 27 February 2021, staff at the restaurant took Couzens’s registration number and identified the car from CCTV as a black Seat. They also gave police details of the credit card Couzens had used. But the police did not speak to Couzens before Everard’s murder.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said a former Met police officer was to face a gross misconduct hearing for allegedly failing to properly investigate the indecent exposure allegations at the restaurant. The officer is also facing claims over allegedly misleading testimony given to investigators.
A sergeant from Kent police is facing a misconduct meeting over an indecent exposure allegation in 2015 in which Couzens was reported for driving through Dover naked from the waist down. That case has been left to lie on file after Couzens pleaded not guilty. He also pleaded not guilty to two other incidents of indecent exposure at the fast food restaurant.
The Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, Stuart Cundy, who leads the force’s directorate of professional standards, said he was sorry Couzens was not caught sooner. “Today’s sentencing reflects the impact these awful crimes committed by Couzens has had on the women he targeted,” he said.
“I have read the victim impact statements and it is clear to me the hurt and trauma that he inflicted on them. It is their courage that has been crucial in bringing him to justice and I am sorry for what they have gone through.
“Like so many, I wish he had been arrested for these offences before he went on to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard and I am sorry that he wasn’t.”
After the sentencing, the IOPC released a series of messages sent by Couzens before he murdered Everard.
Couzens made racist comments and joked about rape with other Met police officers in a WhatsApp group that was known by two names, “Bottles & Stoppers” and “Atkin’s puppets”.
The messages were discovered after Couzens’s arrest, but were kept secret due to the continuing indecent exposure court case.
It can now be revealed for the first time that Couzens joked about sexually assaulting victims of domestic abuse in a group with Jonathon Cobban and Joel Borders, who were jailed for “grossly offensive messages” in November. They were among six officers sacked over membership of the group.
On 22 February 2019, Couzens joked about rape with Matthew Forster [one of the fired officers], saying: “Messy one, lovely. Remember Forster, it’s got to be consensual!” Forster replied: “They’ve only got to say yes once.”
On 21 March 2019, Jonathon Cobban said he had to respond to an unconscious woman who had been drinking, to which Couzens responded: “Did you [perform a sex attack on] her to see if she was OK?” Cobban replied: “I considered it. But she was a right old lump. So I just raped a bystander instead.”
In a conversation on 21 June 2019, the group made fun of domestic violence victims with Couzens saying: “Mate they aren’t gonna ditch you with your skill sets, unless you [perform a sex act on] a DV [domestic violence] victim!” Cobban responded: “That’s alright, DV victims love it … that’s why they are repeat victims more often than not.”
In a conversation eight days later about ethnically diverse areas of London, Couzens said: “You can add Peckham to that list. I was on [Violent Crime taskforce] the other shift in Peckham, another Somalia village!!!!”
(February 22, 2019) Couzens joked about rape
Couzens: “Messy one, lovely. Remember Forster [one of the other officers in the chat], it’s got to be consensual!”
Forster: “They’ve only got to say yes once.”
(March 21, 2019) Cobban said he had to respond to an unconscious woman who had been drinking
Couzens: “Did you [perform a sex attack on] her to see if she was ok?”
Cobban: “I considered it. But she was a right old lump. So I just raped a bystander instead.”
(June 21, 2019) Couzens made fun of domestic violence victims
Couzens: “Mate they aren’t gonna ditch you with your skill sets, unless you [perform a sex act on] a DV [domestic violence] victim!”
Cobban: “That’s alright, DV victims love it ... that’s why they are repeat victims more often than not.”
Borders: “No, they just don’t listen!”
(June 29, 2019) Some officers made racist comments about ethnically diverse areas of London
Cobban: “Got a bus through Hounslow ... what a fucking Somali shit hole. Great. There goes pussy patrol … more like fgm patrol.” [SIC]
Cobban: “Walking through to Hounslow central, it was like walking along a Dulux colour code.”
Borders: “Hounslow twinned with Baghdad.”
Couzens: “You can add Peckham to that list. I was on [Violent Crime Task Force] the other shift in Peckham, another Somalia village!!!!”
