Campaigner says Met Police may contain more officers like Wayne Couzens and David Carrick after damning Casey review
10:16, 21 March 2023
updated: 12:16, 21 March 2023
There is “no question there are more men in the Met" capable of the violence carried out by Wayne Couzens, a campaigner has said after a scathing review into the force was published.
Jamie Klingler, the co-founder of social justice organisation Reclaim These Streets, believes a review by Baroness Louise Casey, conducted in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by Couzens, of Deal, in 2021, provides the “route map” to a total overhaul of the force.
Sarah, a 33-year-old marketing executive, was kidnapped by Couzens who used his warrant card to falsely arrest her before driving her to his home town.
He raped and murdered her before dumping her body on land he owned in Great Chart, near Ashford. He will die behind bars for his crimes.
But Ms Klingler is not convinced the necessary measures highlighted in the report will be carried out.
The Casey report, published on Tuesday found the force to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic and suggested it may contain more officers like Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick.
Baroness Casey said policing in the capital is “broken” and needs a “complete overhaul”.
One gay officer told the review he didn’t feel safe walking past colleagues while off duty, another said the rape conviction rate was “so low it may as well have been legal” while the Met was found to have completely lost the trust of the public.
“I think it is guaranteed that we have seen the worst predator in the Met until the next one,” said Jamie Klingler.
“This system has been built to protect them and not us.
“Nothing’s been done to prevent another Wayne Couzens. Why wouldn’t we expect another David Carrick or another Wayne Couzens?"
Ms Klingler said the report vindicated the work of Reclaim These Streets, which was founded in 2021 and has fought a legal battle with the Met Police over the policing of a vigil for Sarah Everard.
And while she backs the report, she has doubts over whether all of its recommendations will be followed.
“Baroness Casey is giving a route map and saying exactly what you need to do to make this right," she said.
“It’s painful and it is going to take a lot of time and a lot of money and a different group of people involved."
The family of one of serial killer Stephen Port’s victims has also called for a public inquiry into the Metropolitan Police following the findings.
Jack Taylor’s sisters Donna and Jenny Taylor said an inquiry is needed to understand “how and why this force is failing people so badly”.
The 25-year-old from neighbouring Essex was Port’s fourth and final victim. He also killed Daniel Whitworth from Gravesend.
In December 2021, inquest jurors found that “fundamental failures” by the police left Port free to carry out a series of murders, as well as drug and sexually assault more than a dozen other men in Barking, east London, between June 2014 and September 2015.
The Met was accused of homophobia over the failure to stop Port after he took the life of his first victim and went on to murder three more men, but force bosses denied there was an issue.
Donna and Jenny Taylor said the report highlighted the “toxic culture” across the Met Police, adding that they believe police would have reacted differently if their brother had been a woman.
Campaign groups like Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), Rape Crisis and the End Violence Against Women Coalition have also called for urgent changes to the UK’s largest police service.
CWJ director Harriet Wistrich called for the all report’s recommendations to be “accepted and effectively” enacted, with police chiefs held accountable for their implementation and regular reviews of this process.
London mayor Sadiq Khan, who described the report as “damning”, said he accepts Casey's and will be “unflinching” in holding new Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to account.
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