How two of Britain’s most elite police models have been discovered to be housing paedophiles, racists and lady beaters within the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s homicide

The dark corners of the UK’s police inhabited by prolific offenders such as Wayne Couzens have been the subject of radical overhaul attempts ever since the rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

Couzens served in some of Britain’s most prestigious armed policing units – from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit (PADP), where officers guard nuclear assets, Parliament and diplomatic locations.

After his horrific crimes were revealed, it was unearthed that he had committed a raft of previous offences including indecent exposure that colleagues – who nicknamed Couzens ‘the rapist’ – failed to investigate.

Probes into the units revealed a hidden underbelly – made up of a minority of officers – which hid some of the worst offending in recent times.

Since Couzens’ conviction for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah in March 2021, the Met has been forced to conduct a radical overhaul of the PADP and police forces across the country have imposed new measures to catch misconduct. 

Here MailOnline takes a look inside the last four years at elite units where misconduct ran rife – and reveals the officers sacked.

Civil Nuclear Constabulary 

Couzens worked in the CNC from March 2011 until September 2018, during which time he was reported for indecent exposure by a member of the public in 2015.

The investigation by Kent Police went nowhere after the victim was allegedly ‘not taken seriously’ – and Couzens was allowed to continue serving as an armed officer.

Since his arrest, at least a dozen officers have been found to have committed gross misconduct while working at the CNC, for offences ranging from attacking a woman with a knife to child sex offences. 

Jason Corley was a serving officer with the CNC when he attacked a woman with a knife.

Corley, 44, was serving at Sizewell, Suffolk, at the time of the attack in September 2020, just months before the murder of Sarah Everard.

He grabbed the woman, strangled her and dragged her across a room before picking up a kitchen knife and holding it against her throat, a court heard.

Corley then told the woman no-one would believe her if she reported the attack, adding if he was ‘going down for something, it would be for something good.’

Corley is no longer a policeman and was sentenced to three years in prison for the attack.

PC Jonathon Cobban and former PC Joel Borders were both ex-colleagues of Couzens at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

After transferring to the Met the group remained in touch over WhatsApp, where they shared racist, homophobic, misogynistic and ableist messages.

The exchanges were discovered after Couzens was arrested for killing Ms Everard in March 2021 and his phone examined by investigators.

Cobban, 35, and Borders, 45 – who left the force before he could be fired – joked about beating and sexually assaulting women, raping a colleague and using Taser weapons on children.

After a trial the pair were sentenced to three months each in prison. They appealed their convictions but had their case dismissed in July. 

Cobban from Didcot in Oxfordshire was found guilty of three counts of sending grossly offensive messages, while Borders, from Preston in Lancashire, was convicted of five charges. 

Both men have since been found to have committed gross misconduct and have been added to the College of Policing barred list. 

Another six serving and former CNC officers were taken to gross misconduct proceedings in October over hundreds of pornographic, racist and sexist messages.

PCs Adam Rothery, Stephen Moss, Andrew Smith, Ryan Hancock, Fraser Dove and Benjamin Kirk resigned before the hearing in October but would have been dismissed with immediate effect.

The ‘Band of Brothers’ WhatsApp group included numerous offensive messages sent while the officers were on duty.

One message saw them compare the humane euthanisation of an animal to the murder of George Floyd, a black man murdered in the US by a white police officer. 

Hundreds of others were ‘pornographic in nature’ and were ‘derogatory, demeaning and or objectifying to women’.

A seventh officer would also have faced disciplinary hearings, the IOPC said, however they had already resigned from CNC when the allegations came to light. 

Sellafield CNC officer Shaun Mandale was found to have more than 18,000 indecent photographs of children when his house was raided in January 2022.

Mandale, 45, had a total of 7,886 category A images, 2,597 category B and 7,651 category C – as well as 96 extreme images involving animals.

The former officer, from Workington, admitted six charges of making and possessing indecent images in court and was sentenced to 33 months in prison in October 2022.

He was also made to sign the sex offenders’ register for life. 

A ‘Walter Mitty’ top police officer who wore fake medals was allowed to keep his job despite having breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour.

Superintendent Glenn McAleavey, of the CNC, was handed a final written warning after a misconduct hearing found he had worn medals to an event that he hadn’t earned.

McAleavey served as a Royal Marine before joining the CNC in 2007.

Five years later, he attended a private award ceremony hosted by the Chief Constable of Cumbria Police where he wore medal ribbons representing military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, although he had not served in either conflict.

A misconduct hearing in 2020 allowed the officer to keep his job – prompting opposition from other senior members of the force.  

PC Andrew Harkison, of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, was dismissed with immediate effect in August after pleading guilty to two criminal charges in a court of law.

Harkison, who was employed as a dog handler and was responsible for Alsation Atlas, lost control of the animal on two occasions, leading it to attacking two members of the public.

A misconduct hearing panel heard Harkison first lost control of Atlas on March 13, 2023, leading to the dog biting another dog and a member of the public.

Harkison failed to report the incident and continued to walk Atlas without a muzzle. 

The dog then attacked a member of the public, who was walking her two pooches, just over a month later. This time, the female victim was left with serious injuries and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.

On 19 April 2024 PC Harkison pleaded guilty to two criminal charges under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and received a suspended sentence of 10 months’ imprisonment with a requirement to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work and disqualification form having custody of a dog for a period of 5 years.

Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit

Couzens left the CNC to join the Met as an armed officer in September 2018, before being appointed to the PADP.

He had not been subjected to enhanced vetting during his recruitment, or carried out the mandatory two-year probation period at the Met before being assigned to the PADP.

During his time at the Met, Couzens was reported for three counts of indecent exposure, including one just four days before the murder of Sarah Everard.

Since her death, PADP officers have been found to have committed offences ranging from being high on cocaine on duty to assaulting a 14-year-old boy.

PC Phil Hunter from the PADP was found to have committed gross misconduct at two separate hearings after pursuing vulnerable women he met in the course of his duties for sex.

Hunter struck up a sexual relationship with the first woman, who he met on a welfare check and who was suicidal, while also pursuing the second.

He even sent the first woman explicit photos days after she threatened to hang herself – before asking for naked snaps in return.

Hunter resigned before his first misconduct hearing, before getting a job as a black cab driver. His licence was later revoked.

His second victim campaigned for years to have her experiences recognised, after initially being denied a misconduct hearing.

She was finally granted one in August, where Hunter was again found to have committed gross misconduct. 

PC Matthew Thomas of the PADP was found to have committed gross misconduct after testing positive for cocaine at work.

The Met ‘received intelligence’ Thomas was taking illegal substances after discovering his phone number in a drug dealer’s confiscated phone.

A test was conducted a month later, which found he had ten times the cut off level to be found positive in his blood stream while on duty.

Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said Thomas carried a firearm as part of his job and there was ‘no plausible explanation’ for the result other than him knowingly having taken cocaine.

He resigned in September 2023.

PC Thomas Murray was in a positive action seminar when he sent a voice message filled with expletives and racist remarks to a colleague.

But when his colleague went to listen to it, his microphone was not muted – meaning all 21 participants in the session heard the message.

He was said to be ‘simmering’ with rage that officers participating in the meeting were implying the Met was institutionally racist. 

He told his colleague in the message that officers were using the ‘race card’ and called them ‘c*****’.

Murray eventually resigned and was found to have committed gross misconduct in June.

Constable Colin Stevens sent discriminatory and inappropriate text messages to a colleague over a six month period and would have been dismissed if not already retired.

Stevens, of the PADP, retired in March 2023 before an IOPC investigation into him began in August of the same year.

He was found to have sent messages to a second unknown officer that ‘included themes of a racist, sexist, misogynist and generally inappropriate and offensive nature’ between 2013 and 2015.

Some of the messages also made fun of rape, an IOPC statement said.

Stevens did not attend a gross misconduct hearing in May, which found he would have been dismissed if still serving. 

Armed officer Terrence Ellis was so notorious within the PADP that colleagues called him ‘Type Two Terry’ – a reference to serious sexual offences.

Others joked he should always keep his hands ‘above the dashboard’ whenever in a car.

Ellis was sacked in August after a gross misconduct hearing found he had made ‘disgusting’ and misogynistic comments to two female colleagues.

It also emerged that in an officer safety training exercise Ellis told his female partner for a manoeuvre involving a would-be attacker he had scanned to room in the hope of being paired with someone he could ‘tit grope’.

He also rated female colleagues’ attractiveness and his phone contained a photograph of a policewoman he was attracted to.

Ellis was dismissed without notice in August and added to the barred list of officers. 

A PADP officer responsible for guarding the Palace of Westminster was convicted of assaulting a 14-year-old boy.

PC Paul Bewsey was off duty when he assaulted the teenager in Brentwood, Essex in April 2022. 

He was found guilty by deputy district judge Caroline Jackson following a trial at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court.

Bewsey, 44, was ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work as sentence.

He was also ordered to pay £625 in prosecution costs, £100 in compensation and a £95 surcharge.

Firearms officer Lee Ashby committed gross misconduct by taking illegal steroids which threatened the public’s safety.

Ashby, of the PADP, was criticised after being one of the first officers on the scene in the Westminster terror attack in 2017, after taking one-and-a-half minutes to get to the scene from his patrol.

He told bosses he began regularly going to the gym after the attack, which led to the deaths of PC Keith Palmer and four members of the public.

Ashby claimed he was unaware the ‘supplements’ he was taking contained the illegal Anabolic Sterioid Boldenone M1 after failing a ‘with cause’ drugs test.

The side-effects of the steroids meant Ashby, who carried a gun, was more susceptible to ‘irritability, aggression, anger, paranoia, severe mood swings, and sleep disturbance’.

He resigned before a gross misconduct hearing ruled he would have been sacked, ruling the steroid had ‘severe implications’ for public safety. 

Sergeant Paul Knight left the Met before he could be sacked after assaulting a member of the public while off duty.

Knight was collecting a broken hoover from a repair shop in September 2023 when he came across another man who was also picking up a hoover from the same shop.

The officer got out of his white van and verbally attacked his victim, shouting: ‘What f***ing awful driving is that?’.

He then put his hands on the victim’s shoulders and spun him round, where he almost lost balance. Knight was so close that the victim thought he was going to be attacked.

Knight pursued the other man into the repair shop, grabbing him multiple times before pulling out his police warrant card while continuing to be ‘verbally and physically aggressive’.

He is now barred from policing for life. 

Chief Constable Simon Chesterman of the CNC said: ‘The majority of police officers and staff at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary maintain the highest standards of professionalism and integrity. 

‘We acknowledge that some individuals have fallen far short of the standards of behaviour the force, and the public, have a right to expect. 

‘Be assured that we are determined to identify misconduct and we have been successful in doing so, and we will continue to do so robustly and transparently.’

A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘We are determinedly removing from the Met those officers who fail to meet the standards we expect and who let down their colleagues and the public. As we do that we will see more misconduct cases and more dismissals. They are a sign of action being delivered.

‘Wayne Couzens’ crimes were horrific and brought shame on policing. Other officers have been dismissed since him for appalling behaviour too. But those officers working hard now to deliver for the public deserve to be judged on their own merits and not by the actions of others, however awful.

‘In the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command (PaDP), for example, a third of the officers have only recently joined. There are more women and more officers from minority backgrounds. 

‘We have overhauled the leadership so there are now new ideas, with better line management as well as greater oversight and supervision. We launched a Women in Firearms Programme to give female officers an insight into the role and encourage them to join. In doing so we’re helping to increase the diversity and improve the working culture of the whole unit.

‘Similar changes are happening across the Met. We’re not just focused on removing those who shouldn’t be here, but on making sure the majority of hard working officers can be better supported and better equipped to do the job they want to do and that communities need them to do.’