The Metropolitan Police officer handcuffed and arrested his victim in a fake Covid patrol before he raped and murdered her, a court hearing his sentencing on Wednesday.
Murderer cop Wayne Couzens hatched his evil kidnap plot weeks before he raped and killed Sarah Everard.
On Wednesday, a court heard that the Metropolitan Police officer handcuffed and arrested his victim in a fake Covid patrol before he raped and murdered her.
He used his knowledge and experience as a serving officer to detain Sarah before driving her into the countryside. She was eventually found her body in the fridge.
As Sarah made her way back from a friend’s home on March 3, this year, the Old Bailey learned that Couzens had deceived her.
Couzens drove for hours in the city, and she was walking through Clapham. She then vanished.
He had just three days previously taken out a Devon hire car and even ordered handcuffs online for the crime.
Central Recorder reports that Couzens planned the heinous crime weeks before.
On February 10, he was said to have bought a “police standard-issue handcuff key with double locking pin” from Amazon for £2.49.
He then rented the car to snatch Sarah on February 28.
He bought a 600mm x 100mm roll from Amazon of self-adhesive paper in the second attack.
Couzens had worked on ‘Covid patrols’ in the weeks before the murder.
Detectives believe he used the pandemic as an excuse to ‘detain’ his victim as she walked along the street. He planned the crime for weeks and hired a car to drive the kidnap vehicle three days before taking Sarah hostage.
Couzens, a father-of-2, was married and drove for hours around London before finding his victim.
Prosecutor Tom Little said: “The circular route taken by the defendant as well as the areas in which he was driving is consistent with the defendant hunting for a lone young female to kidnap and rape.”
Couzens, a parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer at the time of his horrendous crimes, was arrested at his marital home in Deal, Kent, six days after Sarah’s disappearance.
Three days before the murder, police had located his rental car.
Her killing prompted outrage across the UK and sparked protests at the rate of violence against women.
Couzens met Sarah’s family for the first time in a packed court.
Couzens was instructed by her father not to look at his daughter as he read the heartbreaking victim impact statements to the court.
Jeremy Everard said: “The horrendous murder of my daughter, Sarah, is in my mind all the time and will be for the rest of my life.
“A father wants to look after his children and fix everything, and you have deliberately and with premeditation stopped my ability to do that.”
Wayne Couzens will face sentencing on Thursday.