Why did police take so lengthy to unmask Wayne Couzens as an officer?

Questions stay as to why it took the Met Police so lengthy to unmask Wayne Couzens – as a former detective spoke at this time of his shock at discovering out he was a colleague minutes earlier than he knocked on his door. 

Nick Harvey, a former detective superintendent at Scotland Yard, stated ‘the pit of my abdomen simply fell out’ when he discovered who the chief suspect in Sarah Everard‘s disappearance was as he parked up close to his residence in Kent. 

He informed BBC Woman’s Hour this morning his staff was tasked to analysis Couzens so they may find him.

But as he ‘actually turned off his engine’ to his automobile in Deal he acquired a bombshell phonecall from Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin who informed him Couzens was a serving Met police officer. 

DCI Goodwin, who led the investigation, reveals the surprising second in a brand new BBC documentary about Sarah’s homicide, which comprises interviews with senior police figures and prosecutors concerned within the case.

Yet there will likely be a lot bafflement as to how the pressure was unable to determine he was ‘certainly one of their very own’ sooner, with there solely being one individual named Wayne Couzens on the electoral roll. 

While CCTV confirmed the intercourse offender flashing his penis inside a McDonald’s in Clapham simply hours earlier than he kidnapped and murdered the advertising government on March 3, 2021. 

Mr Harvey, who left the pressure after serving for 17 years, informed BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour host Emma Barnett about receiving the information that was a ‘big second in historical past’.   

‘[I found out Couzens was a police officer] A few minutes earlier than we knocked on the door,’ he stated. 

‘Initially I had tasked my staff with a sequence of analysis to ensure we may truly find him. DCI Goodwin was conducting her personal analysis individually. 

‘I arrived in Deal to transient my staff round what we had been doing and the way we had been going to go about it and as I pulled up as no sooner as I had turned up and actually turned off the engine of my automobile did DCI Goodwin ring me and break the information to me.’

He stated he felt ‘terrible’ and ‘the pit of my abdomen simply type of fell out’, because the gravity of the state of affairs started to daybreak on him.   

‘It was instantly and abundantly clear how a lot this was going to alter policing and what an enormous second in historical past it was going to be,’ Mr Harvey added. 

‘It’s one thing that sadly… homicide is simply too widespread in our society however you can see the distinction of what it was going to imply for the UK.’

Couzens ‘went gray’ when Mr Harvey recognized himself and at that time the ex-cop knew he ‘was instantly concerned’ in Sarah’s disappearance. 

He then needed to preserve his feelings in examine as he carried out an ‘pressing interview’ to try to persuade the killer the place the 33-year-old was. 

Mr Harvey stated it had been ‘actually difficult’ to course of what had occurred three years in the past and since he left the pressure.

‘I’ve acquired a whole lot of satisfaction in what I’ve achieved and the work that I’ve carried out I’ve at all times tried to do the easiest I may do and to know that is actively undermined by a bit of policing is terrible,’ he stated. 

‘It’s a fraction sadly of what Sarah’s household have ever needed to undergo on account of it. It pales into insignificance actually.’

It comes forward of the BBC airing its documentary Sarah Everard: The Search For Justice on Tuesday night on BBC One, days after the third anniversary of her dying.

In the documentary, Miss Goodwin revealed the police found Couzens was suspected of an indecent publicity offence days earlier in Kent, earlier than they discovered he was a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

Miss Goodwin stated they found this after Sarah and Couzens had been noticed on CCTV footage subsequent to a automobile, which led to his identification.

She stated: ‘At that point, Wayne Couzens was a reputation that meant nothing to any of us. So instantly we begin researching the identify, additionally the telephone quantity and the deal with that had been given when he’d employed the automobile.

The detective added that when it was found he was suspected of indecent publicity, it ‘immediately modified every thing, as a result of while I may need hoped that Sarah had acquired into the automobile with somebody she knew, immediately it was clear to me that she’d acquired into the automobile of an alleged intercourse offender’.

The officer despatched a staff to Couzens’ home in Kent to query him and, whereas officers had been en route, a detective bumped into Miss Goodwin’s workplace, shut the door, and informed her ‘you should hear this’.

A researcher on the telephone then revealed that Couzens was a serving Met officer.

Miss Goodwin stated: ‘I knew that I needed to inform my boss and I can simply bear in mind the shock of getting to simply sit on the ground of the workplace and say to her, ‘You’re not going to consider this, that he is a police officer’.

‘And then the identical questions went by way of her head as went by way of my head, “Are you sure?”.

Officers arrived at Couzens’ residence at 5.45pm, however didn’t knock on his door till two hours later. During this time Couzens had wiped his cell phone of all of its knowledge.

MailOnline has contacted Met Police for remark.  

A just lately revealed damning report discovered there have been repeated missed alternatives to cease Couzens that left him capable of keep within the police regardless of being a serial intercourse offender with a status for disturbing sexual behaviour that led to a nickname of ‘the Rapist’.

The Met police has at all times maintained it discovered no proof of him being given the ‘repugnant nickname’ whereas he labored for an additional pressure.  

An inquiry discovered Couzens’ historical past of alleged sexual offending dated again practically 20 years earlier than he kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah in Clapham, south London.

The married father of two was reported to police eight occasions for indecent publicity between 2008 and 2021 however was capable of proceed within the police resulting from ‘torpid and insufficient’ investigations, a report discovered. 

Inquiry chair Lady Elish Angiolini recognized no less than 5 incidents which weren’t reported to police and warned there might be extra victims.

It emerged for the primary time that Couzens, now 51, allegedly carried out a ‘very critical sexual assault of a kid barely into her teenagers’ whereas he was in his twenties.

Couzens was accused of trying to kidnap a girl at knifepoint in North London in 1995 whereas aged 23. He was additionally accused of raping two ladies and indecently touching a person in a bar whereas carrying a blonde wig.

Lady Elish discovered the married father of two ‘may and will’ have stopped from getting a job as an officer, and that with out a radical overhaul of British policing, there’s ‘nothing to cease one other Couzens working in plain sight’.

The inquiry staff discovered that there have been cases the place he confirmed excessive violent pornography to associates and police colleagues, in a transfer to check their boundaries, and despatched unsolicited photographs of his genitals to ladies.

Both Kent and the Metropolitan Police had been criticised for insufficient investigations into claims of indecent publicity towards Couzens.

There was a sequence of incidents the place he was accused of flashing – three of which he was sentenced for final 12 months, regardless of already having acquired a complete life jail time period for Sarah Everard’s homicide.

These had been masturbating in entrance of a lone feminine bicycle owner in a Kent nation lane in 2020, and twice exposing his genitals to workers at a quick meals restaurant in February 2021 within the days earlier than Sarah’s homicide.

He drove his personal automobile and used his personal bank card on the outlet however no motion was taken on the time, with investigating officer Pc Samantha Lee later sacked for failing to analyze correctly.

Another two related incidents on the quick meals restaurant had been ordered to lie on file, and there have been two incidents in 2008 and 2021 that had been reported to the Met and Kent respectively on the time when Couzens allegedly uncovered himself, however there was inadequate proof to carry costs.

In 2015, a member of the general public reported having seen a person driving round in Kent together with his genitalia uncovered, giving the make, mannequin, color and registration variety of the automobile.

Couzens was recognized because the keeper of the automobile however Kent Police closed the investigation with no additional motion and with out even talking to him.

Lady Elish Angiolini stated: ‘This was a grave error and a really apparent pink flag.’