The kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met police officer has shocked the nation.
On Wednesday, a court heard for the first time the full details of how the 33-year-old met her death at the hands of evil Wayne Couzens, who had been plotting his crimes for weeks.
The prosecution presented a minute-by-minute break down of his sick plan, his attempts to cover it up and the painstaking work of his colleagues to catch him.
The married father-of-two bought items to carry out the kidnapping and rape, days before he snatched Sarah as she walked home in Clapham Common, South West London, on March 3.
He drove around London in a repeat pattern looking for a lone female victim, when he came across Sarah.
The armed diplomatic protection officer used emergency Covid laws to falsely arrest the marketing executive and bundle her into a hire car he had arranged a few days earlier.
Prosecutor Tom Little QC said: ‘That was the start of her lengthy ordeal, including an 80-mile journey whilst detained which was to lead first to her rape and then her murder.
‘At some point fairly soon after driving from the pavement on to the South Circular and having not gone to a police station, Sarah Everard must have realised her fate.’
Couzens drove Sarah 80 miles to Kent where he raped and strangled her.
He then burned her body in a fly-tipped fridge before dumping the remains in a nearby pond.On Wednesday, Sarah’s parents and sister condemned her killer as a ‘monster’ as he sat quaking in the dock of the Old Bailey with his head bowed for the start of his sentencing.
The court heard how Couzens’ heinous plan to kidnap and rape had been weeks in the making.
On February 10, the sexual predator bought a ‘police standard-issue handcuff key with double locking pin’ from Amazon, costing him £2.49.
Then on February 28 he rented the hire car used to snatch Sarah using his name, address and two different mobile phones.
Minutes later, he bought a 600mm by 100mm roll of self-adhesive film from Amazon t
hat came with the guarantee of providing ‘a protective barrier from liquid spillages such as paint, varnish, oil and much more.’On the night he abducted Sarah, the cop was seen on CCTV buying hairbands he used in the attack.
Mr Little said Couzens bought the pack from a Tesco store at 8pm ‘for the purposes of the planned kidnap and rape’.
The court also heard how signs that could have stopped the killer from carrying out his plan were missed.
Despite presenting himself as a ‘family man’, some colleagues knew he was into violent pornography and an ‘incident’ was reported in 2002.
Couzens had a fake profile on Match.com and in February had begun contact with an escort from an adult website, who used the name ‘escourtbabygirl’.
Off duty, Couzens would wear his police belt with handcuffs while out walking the dog or taking his computer for repair.
On the day he snatched Sarah, two people had seen him wearing the kit and when asked about the equipment in a computer hardware shop, he joked he was into ‘kinky stuff’, before telling the owner: ‘I am an undercover officer’.
Just three days before abducting, raping and murdering Sarah, Couzens allegedly flashed two female members of staff at a McDonald’s drive-thru restaurant in Swanley, Kent.
They reported it to police and CCTV cameras were able to identify Couzens’ car. But tragically, the incident was not seen as a high priority case, so he was not apprehended and continued to turn up to work.
On the night he carried out his evil plan, Couzens told his wife he was on another night shift.
In fact, he drove his own car, a black Seat, eight miles to Dover from his home in Freemens Way, to collect the hire car, a white Vauxhall Crossland.
The prosecution believes the Seat, which was ‘filthy and messy’, would have ‘set off alarm bells’ because it was not credible as the car of an undercover police officer.
Couzens parked the Seat and made his way on foot to the Enterprise car rental office. Just after 4pm, he drove the Vauxhall back to his own car where he collected ‘items he planned to take with him to London, including his police equipment’.
The sexual predator had reached London by 8pm, and spent the next hour driving around the Earls Court area, before heading south over Battersea Bridge towards Clapham before heading back to Earls Court and then south of the river once more.
Mr Little told the Old Bailey: ‘The circular route taken by the defendant as well as the areas in which he was driving are consistent with the defendant hunting for a lone young female to kidnap and rape.’
Sarah’s boyfriend told police she was ‘extremely intelligent, savvy and streetwise’ and would not have got into a stranger’s car ‘without force or manipulation’.
A couple driving past the scene witnessed her fake arrest and said she was being complaint. The passenger saw one of Sarah’s arms behind her back and remarked to her husband: ‘I’ve just seen a woman being handcuffed’.
But ‘they were in fact witnessing the kidnapping of Sarah Everard. She was detained by fraud,’ said Mr Little.
‘The defendant used his warrant card and handcuffs as well as his other police issue equipment to effect a false arrest.’
Dashcam footage timed at 9.37pm shows Sarah in the rear of the Vauxhall. It may be the last time she was seen alive.
The court heard it only took Couzens five minutes to kidnap Sarah. He drove her to a non-residential area of Dover in the hire car before forcing her into his own vehicle, which was parked nearby.
It is believe he must have threatened her and Sarah was unable to escape.
Couzens then drove to a remote rural area north-west of Dover which he knew well, where he parked up and raped his victim.
The court heard it was impossible to pinpoint the exact moment the predator strangled Sarah because he refused to tell investigators.
However she had ‘likely already been murdered’ when Couzens stopped to buy drinks at a station at 2:30am, as doing so while she was alive would have been ‘foolhardy’.
After raping and murdering Sarah, Couzens spent a few hours driving around Kent before stopping at a Costa Coffee in Dover where he had hot chocolate and a Bakewell tart.
The next morning on March 5, he filled up a can of petrol that he used to burn her body.
He was also seen buying two large green rubble bags from B&Q after the same calling his boss saying he was ‘suffering from stress’ and was unable to work.
Couzens will be sentenced today, and the judge has been asked to consider a whole-life term.
It means he could die behind bars.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/3F6s11K
0 Comments