It seems inconceivable now, three years almost to the day that PC Wayne Couzens abused his powers to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard, that he was initially portrayed by the service as a rotten apple.
An aberration, they told us. There was no indication of the danger he posed, they claimed. Here was a man said to have betrayed his colleagues, and the values for which they stood, almost as much as he had betrayed the public.
What a deceit that has turned out to be.
• The inquiry as it happened: murder was ‘one of darkest days in policing’
We already knew of multiple chances to stop Couzens. He might have been flushed out had any of the serving officers in his abhorrent WhatsApp group blown the whistle on jokes about rape and assault. Had investigative officers done their jobs, and properly investigated years earlier when Couzens was reported for indecent exposure, he might never have had the warrant card he used to lure Sarah into his car.
Advertisement
Had vetting officers delved a bit deeper and uncovered reports of sexual deviancy, Couzens might never have had the handcuffs he used to restrain Sarah or the police-issue belt he used to strangle her after raping her.
But despite two court cases, a string of reviews and countless Met press conferences pledging to root out predators, it is only today that we learn the full and horrifying truth.
Couzens had been reported to police a staggering eight times. He was a prolific sexual offender who had previously tried to kidnap a woman at knifepoint, and is suspected of the sexual assault of a child and two other rapes.
There were a host of red flags that should have stopped him from joining the police, as well as disturbing behaviour that warranted investigation during his tenure.
He had friends at Kent police, where he worked as a special constable, when his name, address and other details were broadcast across the radio system in connection with an indecent exposure in 2015. He showed extreme and violent pornography to colleagues in a move to test their boundaries.
But instead of being reported, he was given a weapon.
Advertisement
The utter preventability of it all is galling. Couzens was never fit to wear that uniform, but he thrived in it.
And he is not the only one. In the three years since, on a weekly if not daily basis, serving police officers have been revealed in our courts as rapists, violent thugs and liars.
The Metropolitan Police has been shown to be a hotbed of sexism, racism and homophobia.
A place where reports of indecent exposure, a well-known escalation sexual offence, were shrugged off. Where rape kits were kept in overflowing fridges. Where whistleblowers were punished, and where predators blossomed.
So today, please, spare us the cliche that lessons have been learnt. In July 2021 when the Met was pledging to restore trust after the Couzens case — indeed, the very month that he pleaded guilty to kidnapping Everard — a firearms officer from the same unit was arrested for rape. Yet they did not even suspend PC David Carrick. He continued working until he was later brought to justice as one of Britain’s most prolific rapists.
Advertisement
Carrick had been known to colleagues as Bastard Dave, although senior brass reassured us it was because he was “mean and cruel” rather than because of his sexual behaviour, as though that is an acceptable excuse.
And only this month we learnt of PC Cliff Mitchell, convicted of multiple counts of rape. Mitchell had been allowed to join the Met in August 2021, a month after Carrick’s arrest, despite being previously accused of child rape.
No doubt that for every Mitchell, there are outstanding officers. There are plenty committed to public service who do their difficult jobs despite inadequate resources and a lack of morale. The officers who caught Couzens, and worked meticulously for months gathering evidence that meant he had no choice but to plead guilty, are the best of them.
But there are still too many pockets of poor behaviour, and it is a far wider problem than the Met. Only this month we learnt that, in the aftermath of last summer’s stabbing murders in Nottingham, officers sent offensive messages about the devastating fatal injuries suffered by Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, aged only 19.
There is clearly a problem with the kind of person that becomes a police officer.
Advertisement
And, without intending to criticise her review and its commitment to rooting out failure, there is a wearying predictability to Lady Elish Angiolini’s findings and recommendations.
We know that vetting is inadequate. That top brass cared more about public relations than fixing things. We know it is an institution that has failed in its core mission to protect the public, because so many of the people it employs have posed a threat.
The past three years have been littered with promises of change. Today, I’m sure, we’ll get more.
I can hear their voices already, saying that vetting has been improved, that they’ve redoubled efforts to arrest indecent exposure perpetrators, that they’re ridding the ranks of predators.
But can we believe them?
