Police investigating whether Wayne Couzens has links to cold cases over past 30 years
18:17, 04 October 2021
updated: 20:58, 04 October 2021
Detectives are investigating whether rapist and murderer Wayne Couzens has committed any other offences over the past 30 years.
Officers from Metropolitan Police are tracking his movements back three decades to see if the killer cop's match any unsolved cases.
Couzens, previously of Freeman's Way, Deal, will never be freed from prison after he was sentenced to a whole life orderfor kidnapping, murdering and raping Sarah Everard as she walked home from a friend's house.
The former parliamentary guard drove the 33-year-old to the outskirts of Dover where he raped and murdered her, before dumping her body in Great Chart, near Ashford.
Now, MailOnline has revealed the killer's time with the Army, Kent Police and Dungeness Nuclear Power plant will all come under scrutiny.
A source told the website the London police force will be "drawing up timelines" to see if he was anywhere near cold cases.
They added: "If he has done anything else, they will find it and bring him to justice."
Currently Kent Police do not think he is connected to any other cases in the area, but he is known to have committed an indecent exposure- driving round naked from the waist down in his car - while serving with them in 2015.
While being sentenced last month The Old Bailey heard how the 48-year-old used his warrant card to falsely arrest Sarah by claiming he was on a Covid patrol.
The former armed officer was jailed for life without the possibility of parole.
Lord Justice Fulford described the circumstances of the murder as "grotesque" and Sarah's final hours as “bleak and agonising as is possible to imagine.”
After cuffing and locking Sarah in the back of his hire car on March 3, the killer drove to the outskirts of Dover where he raped and murdered her. A post-mortem revealed she had been strangled.
Warped Couzens then dumped her body in Great Chart, near Ashford – 80 miles from where he had picked her up.
Shortly after, Couzens took his wife and children to the same woods, where they played metres from where her body was hidden.
He returned the next day to burn her body, then returned again to to dump her remains in a pond.
Couzens had been arrested a day before sniffer dogs found her remains, a week after she went missing. He initially weaved an outlandish yarn involving prostitutes and gangsters.
He said he'd been forced to kidnap Sarah after failing to pay eastern European mobsters for the services of a prostitute he had met at Folkestone'sHoliday Inn.
Couzens claimed he was threatened and told his family would be harmed if he did not deliver a woman to the gang, adding he followed their orders but had not harmed Sarah.
But when detectives presented evidence the armed officer reverted to 'no comment' interviews. He would later admit kidnap, rape and murder.
Speaking after the sentencing Sarah's family said: "We are very pleased that Wayne Couzens has received a full life sentence and will spend the rest of his life in jail. Nothing can make things better, nothing can bring Sarah back, but knowing he will be imprisoned forever brings some relief.
"Sarah lost her life needlessly and cruelly and all the years of life she had yet to enjoy were stolen from her. Wayne Couzens held a position of trust as a police officer and we are outraged and sickened that he abused this trust in order to lure Sarah to her death. The world is a safer place with him imprisoned.
"It is almost seven months since Sarah died and the pain of losing her is overwhelming. We miss her all the time. She was a beautiful young woman in looks and character and our lives are the poorer without her. We remember all the lovely things about Sarah - her compassion and kindness, her intelligence, her strong social conscience. But we especially like to remember her laughing and dancing and enjoying life. We hold her safe in our hearts.
"We are immensely grateful to the police and legal team who worked on Sarah’s case. We cannot thank them enough for their meticulous and painstaking work and for their constant support. We also send our heartfelt thanks to our family and friends for comforting us through this terrible time."
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has announced the appointment of an independent figure to conduct a review of Met culture and standards in order to rebuild public trust.
The commissioner said it recognises that the murder of Sarah Everard has severely damaged public confidence in the police service, and that trust will be further diminished by the news of another officer charged with rape.
The full remit of the review will be announced shortly, but it will include looking at the culture at the Met as a whole, including professional standards, training, leadership, processes, and systems and standards of behaviour, and they will examine cases where officers have let the public down to see how they could have been prevented.
Commissioner Cressida Dick said: “I absolutely recognise the grave level of public concerns and the need to take urgent action.
“All of us in the Met realise that it will take time to rebuild that trust and we will work hard to do so. We know that the responsibility sits with us.
“My officers, staff and I are all determined to do everything we can to make sure the public can continue to trust our officers to keep them safe. I hope the announcement today of an independent person to work with us help demonstrate how seriously we take this and our commitment to making the changes needed.”
The Met will shortly be announcing both the details of its plan for improving police standards and its new violence against women and girls strategy.