This article contains references to abduction, rape, and murder.
On Tuesday 5 March, a documentary entitled ‘Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice’ will air on BBC One. After watching a preview screening, GLAMOUR's Entertainment Director Emily Maddick shares the most important things she learned from the powerful documentary…
Last weekend marked three years since the abduction, rape and murder of 33-year-old South Londoner, Sarah Everard, at the hands of serving police officer, Wayne Couzens. Even three years on, it seems the nation is still reeling from this unprecedented crime that served as a watershed moment, blowing open public trust in the police force and highlighting the very real threat of gender-based violence towards girls and women in the UK.
Last Thursday, the first part of the The Home Office-commissioned inquiry into Sarah's murder – undertaken by Dame Elish Angiolini – found there were repeated missed opportunities to stop Couzens within the police force. In fact, he had been reported to the police eight times before he attacked and murdered Sarah. Reports of Couzens' indecent exposure in 2015, 2020 and 2021 were mishandled. Couzens was even found to repeatedly expose himself at a McDonalds in Kent in the few days before he murdered Sarah. Police culture was questioned as a whole in the report, which looked to sexist and misogynistic behaviour as a worrying catalyst for more violent crimes.
Now a BBC documentary, Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice, which has been two and a half years in the making, will air on BBC 1 and BBC iPlayer tomorrow (Tuesday 5 March) at 9pm. The film looks closely at the Met's investigation into marketing executive Sarah's murder, how the devastating crime unfolded and its long-lasting impact. Told by those closely involved in the case from the outset, many of whom are speaking on camera for the first time, including the Senior Investigating Officer, Katherine Goodwin, the Prosecuting Barrister, Tom Little and Sarah's local MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Details of the killer's alarming history were repeatedly missed and mishandled, report highlights
Ahead of tomorrow's release, here are five main takeaways from the documentary…
1.) Women were at the heart of the investigation.
While the Met police force clearly has major problems, and the former Police Commissioner Cressida Dick resigned amid the scandal, there are brilliant women who work there – namely Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, the Senior Investigating Officer on Sarah's case. Goodwin leads much of the documentary – and her care, calmness, leadership and forensic investigation throughout gives some hope that there are brilliant women in the Met. At one point, she reveals that she had to go and tell Sarah's family about a horrific meme being circulated within the police force uncovered by a Sunday newspaper, about how to murder a single girl – on Mother's Day. A horrendous and unenviable task, but as she points out, “they have already lived through the worst day of their life.”
There is also footage released of Couzens' second interview at Wandsworth police station, once in custody, having admitted to kidnapping Sarah. He has a bandage on his head after having self-harmed and repeatedly says, “no comment” to the interrogating female police officer. Her line of questioning is not only powerful, but also brings home the reality of the only reason that Sarah trusted Couzens to get into his vehicle – believing she had broken lockdown rules. “Did you show your warrant card to her?” the female police officer asks. “Is that how she trusted you? Because obviously, you know, as a police officer, we're all in a position of trust, people trust us, don't they? People trust us to look after them. People trust us to help them. You know, protect and serve, that's what they say isn't it? That's what we're here to do. We all took that oath, you included, Wayne.”
2.) It was CCTV footage from a bus that eventually captured Couzens.
Minute details of the case, including the forensic search for Sarah, are revealed in the documentary. The film opens with the chillingly familiar beeping of a self-service checkout at Sainsbury's in Clapham, as Sarah is seen on the store's CCTV buying a bottle of wine to take to her friend's house the night she disappeared. It is later revealed that doorbell footage along the route she walked home along was scoured for signs of Sarah and what might have happened to her.
But it was CCTV footage from a bus along the route which she walked in Clapham that revealed grainy images of two individuals – Sarah and Wayne Couzens – engaged in conversation. Couzens is seen holding something up to her, now known to be his police search warrant, tricking her into believing she was being arrested for breaking lockdown rules. All vehicles that travelled along that road that night were logged, and the white Vauxhall Astra rental car – that Couzens had hired to carry out his crime – was registered in his name. This is what led detectives to their suspect.
3.) Wayne Couzens ‘went grey’ when police turned up at his door.
Former Met detective Nick Harvey was the first to question Wayne Couzens, after travelling with a team to Couzens' home in Kent to question and subsequently arrest him.
Actual footage of Couzens' arrest and initial interview with Nick Harvey is revealed in the documentary, with Couzens sitting on his sofa with his tabby cat in the background. It was only while Harvey and his team were en route to Couzens' home that they discovered that he was a serving police officer in a phone call from Katherine Goodwin. “The gravity of the whole situation then became incredibly clear, says Harvey. “The moment I told the team, it just went silent.”
He added: “We knocked on the door. As soon as he opened it I just put my foot straight into the door, showed him my warrant card and he just went grey. Just... all the colour just run out of his face.” Within 45 minutes, Couzens had admitted to kidnapping Sarah, claiming he had been forced to do so by a gang who were after him due to the “financial sh*t” he was in. But he did not reveal where she was.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place between January and February 2021.
4.) Couzens booked an appointment for his dog at the vets as he was disposing of Sarah's body.
Detectives tracing Couzens' movements following Sarah's abduction discovered that he not only bought a hot chocolate from Costa after he raped and murdered her in Hoads Wood in Kent – before returning to his family as if he had been working a night shift – but he also booked an appointment for his dog at the vets as he was burning her body the next day. After being pictured at a petrol station buying a jerry can of petrol, the recording of his voicemail he left at the vets is played, in which he sounds clear, bright and even chirpy. It is truly chilling.
5.) The police force in the UK stands accused of being a breeding ground for misogyny, violence against women, racism and homophobia.
As has been widely reported, Sarah's case sparked an avalanche of accusations and incidents of police corruption and abuse. While actions have been taken, for many it is not enough. And many of us feel we no longer have faith in the police in the UK.
Activist Jamie Klingler, one of the founders of Reclaim These Streets who organised the vigil for Sarah that was shut down by police – and who then took on the Met in the High Courts, and won – says today: "It was really difficult to watch and relive that horrific time period and how much the police tried to gaslight us and unlawfully break our human right to protest whilst having blood on their hands for their dereliction of duty.
“Some men who hate women intentionally want to be in policing to abuse women and for that power. We need recruitment, vetting and whistle blowing policies that prevent them from being hired in the first place – but if they are hired, don’t let them pass probation.”
Referring to the fact that Couzens had been reported eight times to the police for various offences before going on to murder Sarah, Jamie says: “They had so many chances to stop him. Sarah’s death was so preventable.”
Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice will air on Tuesday 5th March on BBC1 and iPlayer at 9pm
For more from Emily Maddick, GLAMOUR's Assistant Editor and Entertainment Director, follow her on @emilymaddick
Right now, 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties with another 450 being investigated for historic allegations of sexual or domestic violence.
