Murder of Sarah Everard

On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police constable Wayne Couzens, who identified himself as a police officer and handcuffed her. He drove Everard to Kent, where he raped and strangled her before burning her body and disposing of her remains in a pond in woodland.

On 9 March, Couzens was arrested in Deal, first on suspicion of Everard's kidnapping, and then a day later on suspicion of her murder. Everard's remains were discovered in a densely wooded area near Ashford on 10 March; following their identification, Couzens was charged with her kidnapping and murder.

Vigils were held for Everard on the evening of 13 March. The vigil on Clapham Common, near where she had been kidnapped, led to a controversial police response and four arrests for breaches of COVID-19 regulations. The murder gave rise to widespread debate about the role of police in British society and women's safety in the UK.

On 8 June, Couzens pleaded guilty to Everard's kidnapping and rape. On 9 July, he pleaded guilty to her murder. On 30 September, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.

A public inquiry chaired by Lady Elish Angiolini KC was commissioned to investigate how Couzens was permitted to serve as a police officer despite an extensive history of alleged sexual offences. The first part of the report, published in February 2024, found that Couzens had a history of alleged sexual offending and that failings in the vetting process allowed him to become a police officer.

Sarah Everard was born in Surrey in 1987. She grew up in York, where she attended Fulford School. She studied Human Geography at St Cuthbert's Society, Durham University, from 2005 to 2008. At the time of her death, Everard lived in the Brixton Hill area and worked as a marketing executive for a digital media agency.

Wayne Couzens was born in Dover, Kent, on 20 December 1972. He was educated at Castlemount School, and after taking GCSEs worked as a mechanic in his family's garage. He enlisted as a private with the Territorial Army in 2002, and over the following four years he unsuccessfully applied to become a police officer on three occasions. He was employed as a special constable with Kent Police in 2006, and was discharged from the Territorial Army the following year for failing to fulfil training obligations.

In late 2010, Couzens was vetted for recruitment to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC). In early 2011 he resigned from Kent Police, and took up the role of an authorised firearms officer with the CNC. He transferred to the Metropolitan Police Service (Met) in September 2018, working as a police constable and firearms officer. In February 2020, Couzens was assigned to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) branch, the division responsible for uniformed protection of government and diplomatic premises. Couzens had not undergone enhanced vetting as part of his recruitment, nor had he gone through the mandatory two-year probation period with the Met before joining PaDP.