Met Police officer Wayne Couzens will appear at the Old Bailey later today, after being charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard.
Her body was found in woodland in the Ashford area of Kent.
From Met Police:
A serving police constable has been remanded in custody after he appeared in court charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard.
Wayne Couzens, 48 (20.12.72) appeared in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, 13 March.
He is next due to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, 16 March.
A woman, aged in her 30s, who was arrested at the same time as Couzens on suspicion of assisting an offender, has been released on bail to return to a police station on a date in mid-April.
Sarah’s family have been informed and specialist officers are in place to support the family and friends.
The investigation continues and is being led by Specialist Crime Command detectives who are drawing on expertise and skills from hundreds of colleagues across the Met. They are also being supported by Kent Police.
In the interests of clarity about these exceptional events, we are releasing further details of Couzens’ employment with the Metropolitan Police Service.
Wayne Couzens joined the MPS on 10 September 2018. His first posting was to South Area where he joined a response team covering the Bromley area. He then moved to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command on 1 February 2020 where his primary role was on uniformed patrol duties of diplomatic premises, mainly a range of Embassies.
A Met Police officer has also been removed from their duties after sharing what is being described as an inappropriate graphic on social media.
A statement from the Met Police said:
On Friday, 12 March, the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards was made of aware of an inappropriate graphic that was allegedly shared via social media by a probationary MPS police constable with some colleagues. The sharing of the graphic was reported by a number of these officers who were concerned by its content.
Given the context of the officer’s duties at the time, a voluntary referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct in relation to this matter. The PC had been deployed as a cordon officer supporting the search operation in Kent in relation to the murder of Sarah Everard. The officer has been removed from these duties and placed in a non-public facing role while enquiries continue.
The graphic does not contain photographic images, no images of Sarah, nor any other material obtained from or related to the investigation into Sarah’s murder.
Sarah’s family have been made aware of the incident.
Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave, said: “The MPS expects its officers to behave professionally at all times and this includes how they use social media. I take allegations that any officer or officers have failed to observe these standards very seriously and have referred this matter to the IOPC.”
