Sarah Everard: Wayne Couzens presented with picture in March

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

The Metropolitan Police have released footage of the moment Wayne Couzens was confronted with a picture of murder victim Sarah Everard as police questioned the 48-year-old at his home in Kent. Couzens was arrested at his home in Deal on March 9 and later confessed to the rape and murder of the 33-year-old. Ms Everard was abducted off the streets of Clapham in south London by the police officer on the evening of March 3, he later drove the handcuffed marketing executive to a secluded woodland in Kent where he strangled her. 

The chilling footage shows a seated Couzens flanked by plain-clothed detectives, one of them presents him with a picture of Ms Everard.

When asked, “Do you know Sarah?” Couzens replies: “I don’t, no.”

“Sarah went missing on Wednesday, and her parents and family are obviously really worried about her,” pressed the detective.

Couzens goes on to deny knowing where Ms Everard lived and told the policemen he only knew about her disappearance from what he had heard on the news.

It comes as the Old Bailey heard that Couzens used his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card and handcuffs to snatch Ms Everard as she walked home from a friend’s house in on the evening of March 3.

The firearms officer, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift at the American embassy that morning, drove to a secluded rural area near Dover in Kent, where he parked up and raped Ms Everard.

The marketing executive, who lived in Brixton, south London, had been strangled with Couzen’s police belt by 2.30am the following morning.

Married Couzens burned her body in a refrigerator in an area of woodland he owned in Hoads Wood, near Ashford, Kent, before dumping the remains in a nearby pond.

Dashcam footage shows Sarah Everard's final moments

On Wednesday, Ms Everard’s parents and sister condemned her killer as he sat quaking in the dock with his head bowed at the start of his sentencing at the Old Bailey.

Her father Jeremy Everard demanded the killer look at him as he said: “I can never forgive you for what you have done, for taking Sarah away from us.”

Susan Everard said she was “incandescent with rage” at what he had done, saying he disposed of her daughter “as if she was rubbish”.

She added: “I am outraged that he masqueraded as a policeman in order to get what he wanted.”

Sister Katie Everard wept as she said: “My only hope is that she was in a state of shock and that she wasn’t aware of the disgusting things being done to her by a monster. When you forced yourself upon her and raped her.”

Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick also attended court to hear how one of her own officers had abused his position and used his warrant card to kidnap Ms Everard “by fraud” before detaining her “by force”.

Prosecutor Tom Little QC suggested the case was so exceptional and unprecedented that it could warrant a whole life order, meaning Couzens would die in jail.

Opening the facts of the case, he said Ms Everard’s disappearance was one of the most widely publicised missing person investigations the country has ever seen.

Source: Read Full Article