Four months after the disappearance of young Londoner Sarah Everard, legal proceedings continue in the United Kingdom. A 48-year-old police officer pleaded guilty on Friday to the murder of this young woman, which had upset the United Kingdom in early March and revived the debate on violence against women.
Wayne Couzens appeared by video conference from London’s Belmarsh High Security Prison where he is being held, during a hearing at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London. He pleaded guilty in a whisper with his head down.
A “burden for the rest of his life”
For his lawyer, Jim Sturman, Wayne Couzens made a “guilty plea and remorse for what he did and, as he told us this morning, he will carry the burden for the rest of his life.” The London police unit responsible for protecting diplomatic representations pleaded guilty in June to the kidnapping and rape of the 33-year-old who disappeared on March 3 as she returned home home after walking from friends’ home in Clapham, in the south of the capital.
This death had caused great emotion in the country. Thousands of women had shared their feeling of insecurity on social networks, testifying to the threats and harassment suffered, and calling on politicians to act to remedy them. Speaking of Wayne Couzens outside the Old Bailey court on Friday, London Police Chief Cressida Dick said police were “disgusted, angry and devastated by this man’s crimes.”
” Perfect strangers ”
Sarah Everard was found dead seven days after her disappearance in a wood in Kent (south-east of England), a few meters from land belonging to Wayne Couzens. According to the medical examiner’s report, his death was caused by a “compression of the neck”.
At the hearing on Friday, Judge Adrian Fulford referred to a “gigantic investigation which produced very important results for understanding what happened”. He said the policeman’s sentence would be pronounced at a hearing scheduled over two days from September 29.
Risk of recurrence
Investigations revealed that the day Couzens booked the rental car, he purchased a roll of adhesive film over the Internet. Two days after Sarah Everard disappeared, CCTV footage showed him buying two bags of rubble. In a previous hearing, the prosecutor had underlined the significant risks of the suspect’s reoffending if he was released on bail, citing an alleged incident of exhibitionism on February 28 – a few days before the murder.
The IOPC, the police force, is investigating whether the London police have responded appropriately to this report of exhibitionism. The police were also criticized for their muscular intervention in March during a tribute to Sarah Everard, a rally which had been banned due to the confinement then in progress.