Wayne Couzens case: Police ‘must look at vetting processes’ after Sarah Everard murder

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Police officials “must look at vetting processes” and the monitoring of officers in light of the murder of Sarah Everard, Labour has said, amid calls for a public inquiry into alleged failings and “the wider culture of misogyny” in the wake of her killer’s guilty plea.

Wayne Couzens, 48, was a serving Metropolitan Police officer when he committed the crime in March.

He had passed several rounds of vetting, including enhanced checks for armed roles, at three different police forces.

But it emerged that three alleged incidents of indecent exposure by Couzens, in 2015 and in February this year, were not fully investigated.

He also claimed in police interviews to have paid for sex and to have fallen into debt with a “gang of eastern Europeans”.

If true, the behaviour should have triggered procedures that aim to rule out any vulnerability to extortion or blackmail.

The Metropolitan Police defended its processes, saying a review had found that no information was available when he joined the force in 2018 that would have changed its vetting decision.

But it is the second major case in recent months to spark questions over weaknesses in the system, after another officer was convicted of joining a neo-Nazi terrorist group.

Benjamin Hannam was in the Met for two years before his former links to National Action were discovered following a data leak from a far-right online forum.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said: “The Metropolitan Police and wider policing must look at vetting processes and their own safeguarding systems to ensure people who pose a threat to the public are not able to hold such vital positions of trust.

“Society puts huge trust in the police to keep us safe, and the vast majority of officers who serve their communities so bravely will all be appalled by this case. It is absolutely vital that everything possible is done to ensure this can never happen again.”

Couzens was first vetted in 2006, when he joined Kent Police as a voluntary special constable.

The force would have looked at crime and intelligence databases, financial details, friends and relatives, social media, and other open-source information.

Couzens stopped volunteering for Kent Police in September 2010 and joined the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) the following March.

The specialist force, which is responsible for the protection of nuclear facilities, took him on as an Authorised Firearms Office (AFO) guarding the high-profile Sellafield site and then Dungeness nuclear power station.

A spokesperson for the CNC said Couzens had undergone an enhanced level of vetting because of his role, to the minimum standard of “security checked”.

Requirements include questionnaires, internal and external record checks, financial investigations and examination of any MI5 records.

During his time working for the CNC, Couzens is believed to have been reported to police for indecent exposure in Dover.

But the force said it had “no recorded complaints or misconduct allegations made against him, either from his colleagues that he worked with or members of the public, during his time with the constabulary”.

Kent Police said that in June 2015, a man now thought to have been Couzens was “spotted driving a car whilst naked from the waist down”, but no arrests were made.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the force’s alleged failure to investigate the incident.

If Couzens had been convicted of a criminal offence, he would have been referred for disciplinary proceedings and kicked out of the police.

Tributes paid to Sarah Everard at Clapham Common vigil

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If he had tried to join another force, vetting would have flagged the conviction and voided his application.

Couzens was able to continue his career and transferred from the CNC to the Metropolitan Police in September 2018.

Scotland Yard said a review confirmed that he passed vetting processes and that “there was no information available to the Met at the time that would have changed the vetting decision”.

Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, is among those calling for a full public inquiry into “police failures and misconduct and the wider culture of misogyny” following Couzens’s guilty plea.

Ms Everard’s murder sparked protests by women fearing for their own safety earlier this year.

Ms Wistrich said: “As protesters made clear, women do not feel safe and it is incumbent on the government and all criminal justice agencies to now take action over the epidemic of male violence, which is the other public health crisis of our day.”

Couzens was initially posted to neighbourhood and response teams in south London, before moving into the highly sensitive Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in February 2020.

In police interviews following his arrest, Couzens concocted an elaborate false story claiming that he was forced to kidnap Ms Everard by an “eastern European gang”, and had handed her to them alive and uninjured.

He said he had underpaid a prostitute, whom he had met at a hotel in Folkestone, weeks before, and had been told to find “another girl”.

Although investigators swiftly discredited the story and found Couzens had murdered Ms Everard himself, it is not clear whether his wider claims of paying for sex were true.

Such behaviour, if known, could also have resulted in disciplinary action or prosecution for misconduct in public office.

The College of Policing, which is responsible for national recruitment and training standards, said anyone applying to become an officer is subject to a “full and detailed vetting process”.

“The college provides national guidance, which sets consistent and robust standards for police forces through our vetting code of practice and authorised professional practice, which is regularly reviewed and updated,” a spokesperson added.

“Forces should use our guidance as a framework to make autonomous vetting decisions on a case-by-case basis, ensuring they are balanced and proportionate.”