Metropolitan Police officer; Wayne Couzens has pleaded guilty to the murder of Sarah Everard.
Ms. Everard, went missing while walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on 3 March.
Couzens, an armed officer who guarded Royals and diplomats, used a hire car to kidnap Ms. Everard and dumped her body in a bag normally used for building waste.
Last month, Couzens, 48, from Deal in Kent, accepted responsibility for killing Ms. Everard and pleaded guilty to her kidnap and rape.
When asked guilty or not guilty, Couzens simply said “guilty ma’am” while sitting with his hands clasped between his knees and head bowed throughout the hearing, as he entered the plea.
Five members of Ms. Everard’s family were in court this morning for the plea hearing.
No one knows the exact way the 33yrs old Marketing Manager died as Couzens told police a series of lies when first quizzed on March 9, and has stayed silent ever since.
Ms. Everard’s disappearance sparked a major investigation, with her body being found in a woodland in Ashford, Kent, a week later.
In June, police revealed that Ms. Everard’s cause of death was “compression of the neck”. The finding was made in a post-mortem examination into the death of the marketing manager.
The disappearance of Ms. Everard on March 3 and the discovery of her body a week later sparked a wave of vigils across the country as well as demands for action to improve the safety of women on British streets.
According to the Independent News; Ms. Everard, made a 14-minute call to her boyfriend as she started the two-and-a-half-mile walk to her home in Brixton.
Phone and CCTV evidence shows she crossed Clapham Common and came across Couzens in a hired white Vauxhall Astra on the South Circular.
“Before the kidnap of Sarah Everard on the South Circular on March 3, he had not previously met her, did not know her, and had no direct or indirect contact with her. They were total strangers to each other”, said prosecutor Tom Little QC.
He appeared at his court hearings via videolink from HMP Belmarsh but will be brought to the Old Bailey to be sentenced on September 29 and 30.
He will now face a life prison sentence.
