independent.ie– A British police officer could spend the rest of his life in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens (48) kidnapped Ms Everard as she walked home alone from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on the evening last March 3.
The sexual predator, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift that morning, went on to rape and strangle the 33-year-old marketing executive.
Couzens, a firearms-trained parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, wiped his phone only minutes before he was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, on March 9.
The following day, a week after she disappeared, Ms Everard’s body was found in a woodland stream in Ashford, Kent, only metres from land owned by Couzens.
The killing sparked protests at the rate of violence against women.
Yesterday, Couzens pleaded guilty to Ms Everard’s murder, having previously admitted her kidnap and rape.
Five members of Ms Ever- ard’s family were joined by Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick in court to watch as Couzens entered his plea by video link from Belmarsh prison.
During the 20-minute hearing, Lord Justice Fulford discussed the possibility of a whole-life order as he adjourned sentencing until September 29.
Ms Dick spoke to the family before making a statement on the steps of the Old Bailey.
She said she had told the Everard family “how very sorry I am for their loss, for their pain and their suffering”.
“All of us in the Met are sickened, angered and devastated by this man’s crimes – they are dreadful,” she said. “Everyone in policing feels betrayed.”
The UK police watchdog has received a string of referrals relating to the Couzens case, with 12 officers being investigated.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating whether the Met failed to investigate two allegations of indecent exposure relating to Couzens in February, only days before the killing.
Kent Police is also being investigated over its response to a third allegation of indecent exposure in 2015.
Couzens, who joined the Met in 2018, had booked the hire of a Vauxhall Astra and bought a roll of self-adhesive film days before the murder.
At about 9pm on March 3, Ms Everard set off on foot for the two-and-a-half-mile journey home, chatting with her boyfriend on her mobile phone on the way.
A camera attached to a passing marked police car captured her walking alone at 9.32pm.
Three minutes later, a bus camera appeared to capture the moment she was intercepted by Couzens in Balham, south London.
After abducting Ms Everard, Couzens drove out of London, arriving in the area of Tilmanstone, near Deal, at 1am.
Investigators tracked the route of the car using CCTV cameras, and identified the driver as an officer through the car hire firm.
Couzens had used his personal details and bank card to make the booking, picking up the Vauxhall Astra on the afternoon of the abduction and returning it the next day.
The court heard investigators are still analysing scientific evidence relating to Couzens’ own car, in which he transferred Ms Everard from the hire car.
Prosecutor Tom Little QC said: “That may seek to establish where it was that Sarah Everard was raped and where she was murdered.”
Phone data led officers to the site of Ms Everard’s body, around 100 metres outside a property in Ashford owned by Couzens and his wife.
Couzens’ barrister, Jim Sturman QC, told the court: “His pleas today represent a truly guilty plea and remorse for what he did and, as he put it to us this morning, he will bear the burden for the rest of his life. His words, ‘As I deserve’.”
