Sarah Everard Was Falsely Arrested by Her Murderer, Court Hears
LONDON — Sarah Everard was walking home after visiting a friend in her south London neighborhood when a police officer stopped her. He waved her toward his car, pulled out his police identification card and swiftly handcuffed her.It was the middle of a national coronavirus lockdown in March, and the police were charged with enforcing restrictions on movement. The young woman, according to a video of the encounter, did not argue. She got in the car and the officer drove off.Seven days later, her charred remains were found stuffed in green trash bags in the woods some 60 miles away.The crime horrified Britain. For any woman who has looked over her shoulder walking home alone, it struck a raw nerve. And even before it was revealed that the killer was a police officer, it raised profound questions about how the authorities handle incidents of violence against women and galvanized a national movement demanding better protections.But the harrowing details of the abduction, rape and murder of Ms. Everard, 33, were only laid out publicly for the first time on Wednesday during the sentencing hearing for the officer, Wayne Couzens. Mr. Couzens, who worked for the Metropolitan Police, pleaded guilty to her killing earlier this year.The prosecution on Wednesday called Mr. Couzens’ actions an attack of “deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire.”Tom Little, a prosecutor, told London’s Central Criminal Court that Mr. Couzens had gone hunting for a lone young woman and had used his official police credentials, equipment and training to carry out the crime.Entrusted with protecting the public, Mr. Couzens instead used his position of authority to lure Ms. Everard to her death, Mr. Little said.The prosecutor said Mr. Couzens confronted Ms. Everard on March 3 in south London as she walked home from a friend’s house, and conducted “a false arrest” for breaching lockdown guidelines, to get Ms. Everard into his car.He then raped and strangled her, before setting her body alight, Mr. Little said. Ms. Everard’s remains were found near Ashford in Kent.Only days after that discovery, Mr. Couzens took his family on an outing to the same Kent woods, “allowing his children to play in relative proximity to where Sarah Everard’s body had been dumped,” Mr. Little said.Sarah Everard. Her murder set off a national movement as women shared their own stories of harassment on the streets.Credit…-/Agence France-Presse, via Metropolitan Police/Afp Via Getty ImagesMr. Couzens had worked on Covid patrols a few months earlier, the prosecutor told the court, giving him an understanding of the protocols regarding potential lockdown breaches.A witness in a passing vehicle saw what was happening and noted that it looked abnormal, but thought it was just a police officer detaining a woman “who had done something wrong,” the prosecutor told the court.Chilling footage from surveillance cameras showed the interaction between Ms. Everard, where she complied with Mr. Couzens’ demand to get into the car, as she most likely believed she was being arrested.Rights groups reacted with outrage to the new information.The Women’s Equality Party said the abduction in this manner was “a disgusting abuse of power,” and called for an independent inquiry into sexism in London’s Metropolitan Police force, and for violence against women and girls to be treated as a national threat.“Women cannot be expected to trust the police when we have to live with the fear of this,” the party said in a statement. “Misogyny is steeped in our institutions.”Stella Creasy, a member of Parliament from the opposition Labour Party, said in a post on Twitter that the Metropolitan Police “must now respond to the loss of confidence in the police so many women will feel as a result with a clear plan of action as a matter of urgency.”Many have also been critical of the failure by the police to investigate accusations of other sexual offenses by Mr. Couzens before the murder of Ms. Everard, including reports that he exposed himself in public days before the attack.“If only he’d been sentenced for the previous complaints against him,” wrote Jess Philips, another Labour lawmaker, in a post.On Wednesday, before the sentencing hearing, the Metropolitan Police posted a statement acknowledging that Mr. Couzens’ “actions raise many concerns.”“We are sickened, angered and devastated by this man’s crimes which betray everything we stand for,” the police said in the statement.Mr. Couzens could face up to life in prison.Ms. Everard was reported missing by her boyfriend the day after being abducted, when she failed to return home. Soon a missing persons poster spread on social media.The concern over her disappearance soon turned to grief and then anger after her body was found, as well as outrage that the person who killed her was a police officer.The crime set off a national movement as women shared their own stories of harassment on the streets and accounts of sexual violence, calling for action to address the issue of women’s safety.Even in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown, demonstrators gathered, calling for systemic changes to the way the police handle crimes against women.In July, the British government announced a new strategy to tackle violence against women. The measures include proposed harsher penalties for offenders and increased policing of public spaces.Priti Patel, the home secretary, commissioned a report from an independent watchdog group to review the policing response to violence against women and girls. The report, released this month, called for a “radical change of approach across the whole system involving the police, criminal justice system, local authorities, health and education.”Britain’s reckoning with violence against women was again cast into the spotlight this month after the killing of Sabina Nessa, a 28-year-old elementary schoolteacher who was attacked during what should have been a five-minute walk to meet a friend. Many drew parallels between her death and Ms. Everard’s six months earlier.For those who knew Ms. Everard best, her death, in the most brutal of circumstances, was a profoundly personal loss. On Wednesday, at the sentencing hearing, her parents and sister addressed that loss. Her sister, Katie Everard, spoke to Mr. Couzens directly.“The last moments of Sarah’s life play on my mind constantly,” she said. “You’ve taken from me the most precious person. And I can never get her back.”